Protection of labor contract versus employment support

On Thursday October 18 Milan Cabrnoch contributed to the discussion on the forum European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012 concerning European regulation of labor relations in social domain.

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In his lecture he presented relevant European Standards and focused his speech on discrepancy which rules this domain. European Union aspires to preserve European social model but in the same time wants to encourage its competitiveness. Both objectives are against each other. Regular labor law makes employees too expensive and their dismissal is almost impossible. This fact negatively influences employment rate in many Member States and it also protects employees from possible employment.

The next problem appears in complicated legal system which is full of exceptions for different groups of citizens. “Labor law needs to be simplified so that employer and employee could be equivalent partners and have an opportunity to agree on a contract which would be convenient for both sides. It does not necessarily have to be a full-time employment with unlimited contract,” emphasized Milan Cabrnoch. On a contrary it is necessary to equalize other types of employment contracts, whether part-time employment, flexible working hours or working from home, for temporary agencies or work-sharing. This will make finding a job easier for many citizens, among others also to women with children, handicapped people or older workers. In general people need to be employable more than to have some kind of security in an employment relationship.