The contract of employment in relation to General Contract Law

Abstract

The thesis considers the contract of employment within the context of the rules of the Civil Code which regulate contracts in general. Today the juridical relationship between the employer and the employee is regulated extensively by special legislation, which varies from legislation that is expressly concerned with the conditions of employment of the employees, to that which is concerned with the dignity and the health and safety of such employees. This legislative intervention, together with the particular nature of the contract of employment, have rendered a number of provisions of the Civil Code concerned with contracts in general inapplicable to the contract of employment. The primary purpose of this thesis is to consider those instances where these differences arise. However, it will also be demonstrated that in other instances, the provisions of the Civil Code still apply to the contract of employment. The thesis argues that the juridical relationship between the employer and the employee remains contractual but, due to the particular nature of such relationship and the legislation which regulates it, the rules set out in the Civil Code on contracts in general do not always apply to the said contract.