Law the labor

The law the labor is the whole of the rules which govern the relations between the Employeur S and the employees. The Work contract creates a legal bond of Subordination between employer and paid, consequently, the law the labor gathers all that is source of Droit restoring balance. It is a branch of the Private law.

The law the labor is sometimes improperly named Social right. This second discipline is broader, since it includes not only the law the labor but also the right of the Social protection.

Definition

It is possible to define the law the labor (" français") like the whole of the legal rules applicable to the individual and collective relations which are born between the private employers and those which work under their authority with the help of a remuneration called wages|professor Gerard Lyon-Caen .

The law the labor applies only to the Salarié S of the private sector. It is those which perceive wages within the framework of the fulfilment of a work contract. They are placed under the subordination of the head of undertaking which acquires the right to give orders, supervise the implementation and to sanction the failures disciplinarily of it.

Are thus excluded from the law the labor subordinate :

craftsmen, tradesmen, liberal professions and other free lances;
civils servant, statutory or contractual of public law (covered by a statute of Public law).

In Quebec the law the labor includes all the legislative measures which frame the work of a person.

Sources of the law the labor

French sources

These rules result from various sources, at the same time legal and jurisprudential.

In France, the principal ones are:

The texts which are binding to managements and labor

the Constitution: the Préambule to the Constitution of 1946 declares that “each one has the duty to work and the right to obtain an employment” and affirms the right to strike and the right of trade-union association. Article 34 of the Constitution of 1958 entrusts to the law the responsibility to fix the basic principles of the law the labor.
treated S ratified, in particular standards enacted by the International organization of work and the International office of work, that France respects.
the Law: the Labor regulation and the Jurisprudence of the social room of the Court of appeal. The government currently proceeds to a rewriting of the labor regulation, with constant right.
the Payments

Negotiated sources

the collective agreements of connects
the company agreements
the Usage S of company
the Work contract.

The hierarchy of the standards

According to the traditional principle of Hierarchy of the standards, each standard draws its force only from one standard of higher level. Thus, the work contract must respect the agreements and uses of companies, which themselves depend on the collective agreements and the law.

However, in law the labor, this hierarchy of the standards is moderated by an original system of exemptions, widened by the law of May 4th, 2004:

certain rules are subjected to a Law and order: thus, a work contract cannot fix wages lower than SMIC, an company agreement cannot call into question the rules of factory inspectorate.
apart from these rules, the law of May 4th, 2004 set up a system of exemptions within the collective agreements: an company agreement can then fix rules less favorable than the convention of branch to which it is attached, except if the collective agreement were expressly opposed to such an exemption. A work contract cannot profit from these exemptions.
at the higher level, the Auroux laws of 1984 provided that the collective agreements could fix rules less favorable than those of the law in the field of the work period.

International sources

the treated and Accord S are signed between 2 or several States concerning migrant worker. These treaties are applied provided that there is reciprocity and that they were ratified by the President of the Republic.
the international conventions within the framework of the International organization of work (ILO, body of UNO) aim at unifying the law the labor towards a greater social justice in the world (Travail of the children, slavery, etc).

Community sources

the treated of Rome, Maastricht and the Accords of Schengen devote the principle of freedom of movement of the people amenable to the Member States.
the payments are directly integrated in the Community legislation and the directives must be integrated in the national legislations after a given time. These texts tend to unify and harmonize the rules of the Member States.
the Jurisprudence of the court of justice of the European Communities takes care of the repect of the application of the Community legislation.

Official sources

It acts of the Constitution, of the Loi S, the ordinance S and the payments, but also of the jurisprudence which checks the application of the legal provisions.

Professional sources

the Convention S and collective agreements are concluded between the employers and the Salarié S via their representative Syndicats.
the professional Uses or habits, the Rules of procedure and the work contract are also at the origin of the rules governing the reports/ratios of work.

These professional sources must be more favorable than the law. Since the coming into effect of the law of May 4th, 2004 (Law n° 2004-391, OJ May 5th, 2004, p. 7983 and S.), collective agreements of companies can derogate from the law in an unfavourable direction with the employee, in particular as regards time of work.

Law the labor in the world

Law the labor in France

In France, the goal of the law the labor is to restore balance between the Salarié and the employer. Indeed, the employee needing incomes to live, the contractual relation between the employee and the employer is largely favorable to the employer. The law the labor is thus a right in favor.

Origins of the law the labor in France

The law the labor was born at the end of the 19th century. This century saw the appearance, with the Industrial revolution, of a new social class, the workmen, resulting from the farming community. The first law of work, that of March 22nd 1841 and consisted in limiting the working time for the children: not more than six hours per day cut out in periods for less than twelve years, not more than twelve hours per day for the minors of more than twelve years, and not of night-work nor Sundays and bank holidays for the boys of less than sixteen years and the girls of less blackjack years. In addition, this law prohibited underground work (mines) for the children of less than twelve years and for the women, and fixed the obligation for the children of less than twelve years to follow courses to the school apart from the work hours. As from the years 1870, the prohibition of work for the children of less than twelve years is gradually implemented.

In parallel, the Second Empire abolishes the offense of coalition in 1864 and the law Waldeck-Rousseau of March 21st, 1884 legalizes the Syndicat S.

Characteristics

The law the labor also defined very early the Civil responsibility of the principal (the employer) when the clerk (the employee) caused an accident: the employer growing rich by the work of the employees, it is logically with him to assume the risk relative to this work.

Law the labor to Quebec and Canada

With the Canada, the companies are controls by two systems distinct from law the labor. Under the terms of the Canadian Constitution, the companies of federal competence are controls by the federal laws and those of competence proviciale are controls by the laws suitable for each provinces.

With the Quebec, the principal laws of work are the Civil code of Quebec, the Labor regulation, the Loi on the standards of work, the Loi on health and safety with work and the Loi on the industrial accidents and the occupational diseases.

The sources of law the labor to Quebec are, of most important with least, the Canadian Constitution, the laws enjoying a certain primacy (like the Charte of the rights and freedoms of the person), the Loi S, the Décret S, the collective agreements, the Jurisprudence, the Doctrine and the habit.

The courts of common right like the Court of Quebec, the Superior court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme court of Canada are competent to hear the litigations concerning work. There exist also courts specialized like the Commission of the business acquaintances, the Commission of the professional lesions and the Arbitrage of objections which have particular competences relating to certain aspects of the Québécois laws of work.

Law the labor to the United Kingdom

The law the labor has evolved/moved considerably with the the United Kingdom for forty years, following the action of the Syndicat S and at the entry of the country in the European Union. The United Kingdom thus had to set up a procedure of information and preliminary consultation of the employee representatives in the event of lay-off by application of European Directive S.

The independent source of the law the labor to the United Kingdom is legislative today and not, like most of the English Droit, jurisprudential: Employment Rights Act of 1996, Employment Act of 2002, texts particular prohibiting discrimination according to the sex, of the race, the handicap, the sexual orientation, the religion and (in 2006) the age. This right is about identical in the various areas of the United Kingdom.

In the event of litigation between an employee and his employer, the business can be carried in front of a court bearing the name of Employment Traibunal . They must however, under penalty of sanction, to have as a preliminary followed a method of conciliation friendly defined by the Employment Act of 2002 An employee cannot carry in front of the court a complaint for abusive Licenciement ( to unfair dismissal ) that if it has been in station for at least a year. There exist however exceptions in the case of an expectant mother or of a complaint for racial discrimination.

The duration of the working time is not fixed in a uniform way. If the duration worked per week is about the same one in the United Kingdom that in the rest of Europe, the distribution is much broader between the many people who work part-time on the one hand and those which have long lives of work on the other hand. In 1998, the government fixed a limit of 48 hours time worked on average within the framework of the European right. The employees can however work more by signing a “clause of withdrawal” ( opting out ), provision criticized by the trade unions but accepted by the European commission.

See too

External bonds

Official site of the ministry
Work Employment: Collective agreements, dismissals, labor regulation
legifrance.fr: Consultation on line of the Labor regulation, the Collective agreements…
fondation-copernic.org: evolution of the law the labor
france.attac.org: Application of the fundamental standards of work
Juritravail: Law the labor and Collective agreements
Social news, law the labor and collective agreements (wire rss)
" Page; Right of the travail" gate of risk QHSE
Complete records on the law the labor

Bibliographical elements

Special issue, Towards a new social right? , with in particular the articles of JJ. Dupeyroux, J. Barthelemy, A. Supiot, Re-examined Social right, January 2003

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