Vybrané problémy kolizního práva pracovního

This paper is the result of research which the author's team conducted on Czech, European and international labour law, specifically in regards to cases in which an employment relationship contacts two or more legal systems of different states. "Conflict of law" rules have led to the development of specific conflict rules that determine the applicable law in a particular case. The most favoured criterion for determining the applicable law is the place of permanent workplace. The conflict rules governing the conflict of different labour law systems also implement the principle of employees' protection, which is significant for the entire body of labour law. The legal approach to determining the appropriate law is complicated in civil law because of several problems. The first issue concerns the scope of labour law. To give context to this problem, it must be considered that certain law systems, the Czech Republic including, conceive labour law as an important part of the social protection system. The labour law in such states contains a large number of rules set forth in the name of public good (overriding rules). These legal systems are reluctant to allow the application of foreign law. Therefore it is important to determine whether the legal relationship in question falls within the scope of labour law or not. The Czech Labour Code set forth its scope using the concept of dependent work. The legislature has shaped the concept by the following words: the work performed by an employee in the relation of inferiority to an employer, when an employee works personally, respecting the employer's instructions, in the employer's name, for payments, in working hours or at another stipulated time, at the work place or some other agreed upon location, at the employer's expense and responsibility. The Czech Labour Code must be applied to govern the legal relationship in the performance of dependent work. Parties shall not violate this rule. The second issue is the qualification problem. What is in the Czech Republic understood as an employment relationship may be classified as a private relationship in another law system. The same is true for the determination of private and public law. States usually do not allow application of foreign public law on their territory. Thus, it is vital to know whether the legislature considers labour law as a part of public or private law. However, some legal systems do not follow such classification at all. That is the reason why this article concentrates on the comparative research of German, Greek, Russian and Slovak labour law conflict rules.