The growing popularity of self-employment, in which self-employed persons very often operate in conditions similar to those of employees, has necessitated the need to extend this category of workers to protection, which until recently was reserved exclusively for the employment relationship. De lege lata under Polish law, the self-employed already benefit from: legal protection in the field of life and health; protection against discrimination; a guaranteed minimum wage and protection of wages for work; the protection of parenthood; and also from coalition rights, which consequently gives them broad collective rights. The tendency to extend legal protection to selfemployed persons is consistent with both the standards of international and EU law, as well as the norms of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The aim of this study is to answer the question whether the legal protection of the self-employed should be extended at all, and if so, what should be the statutory model of this protection and the criteria for determining its limits in Poland to ensure its effective functioning in practice.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

FINANSOWANIE

The article was prepared as part of a project financed by the National Science Centre in Poland pursuant to the decision number DEC-2018/29/B/HS5/02534. The project’s registration number is: 2018/29/B/HS5/02534.

Bearing the economic risk as a feature of a self-employed person

The author puts forward and justifies the thesis that one of the essential features of self-employment is bearing the economic risk. She indicates the implication of this thesis in the context of preventing the so-called sham self-employment, and in the context of the search for a legal model of self-employment protection, understood as covering this group of contractors, with the necessary modifications, by some protective institutions specific to employees within the meaning of Art. 2 of the Labor Code.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Self-employment in the European Union in the light of legal regulations and case law

Self-employment is the subject of both EU regulations and case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. On the one hand, EU law ensures self-employed persons freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment by removing barriers and protecting against discrimination. On the other hand, EU law aims to combat bogus self-employment and to provide social protection for the self-employed, recognizing the wide spectrum of their labour market situation. The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, discussed in this article, plays an important role in extending the personal scope of the concept of ‘worker’ under various social policy directives to persons who perform work on a basis other than an employment relationship, working under similar conditions. 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Self-employment in the light of the Polish Constitution

The aim of the article is to indicate the legal basis for the protection of self-employed work in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The author discusses the subjective scope of workers’ rights guaranteed in the constitutional law and indicates the arguments justifying the thesis that it is not possible to define a “constitutional worker” on the basis of the provisions of the Polish Constitution. Attention has also been paid to limitations on the exercise of collective rights by the self-employed persons arising from ordinary laws. They raise doubts in the context of compliance with international standards, to which the Constitution of the Republic of Poland refers in Art. 59 § 4.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Self-Employment and Wage Protection

The Act of 10 October 2002 of the minimum wage, as amended in 2016, has granted a right of minimum hourly wage to natural persons who carry out economic activity and employ neither employees nor mandataries. Minimum hourly wage is a subject of protection based on a concept of employees’ wage protection which is laid down in Polish Labour Code. In this text the aspects of protection laid down in the amended Act of the minimum wage are analysed, not excluding the protection against execution in the meaning of the Civil Procedure Code. In conclusion the author states that the subjective scope of above-mentioned protection goes too far taking into account that natural persons who carry out economic activity on the real market do not need a protection based on labour law concept.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Self-employment and rights related to the parenthood

The article deals with the legal and factual possibilities for self-employed to exercise certain rights related to parenthood. It addresses the issue of who, in the light of international, regional and EU legal norms, is the addressee of rights related to parenthood and what is their content and axiological justification. An attempt was also made to determine whether national law guarantees self-employed workers parental rights and, if so, to what extent, and to identify factual and legal obstacles to the exercise by self-employed contractors of parental rights.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The legal status of a trade union activist performing work on a basis other than an employment contract

As a result of the amendment to the Act on Trade Unions, people performing work based on a civil law contracts may become trade union activists. However, this raises significant questions. First of all, it is doubtful to grant compensation to person who was dismissed without the consent of the trade union in the case where the termination of contract is objectively justified. Secondly, it is doubtful to grant these people the right to remuneration while they are released from the obligation to perform work. 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The article’s primary purpose is to present an understanding of in-work poverty by defining the mentioned phenomenon uniformly in all European Union countries and by demonstrating its main determinants. First of all, it is necessary to present a complex definition of the term in-work poverty and refer it to the concept of precarious work functioning in both the legal circuit and the literature. The analysis starts by presenting the existing indicators and measurements of this phenomenon as a basis for conclusions on legal, economic, and social conditions of in-work poverty. The critical role in this regard is attributed to labour law and social security regulations and their continuous changes caused by adapting to new forms of organizations of work and to expectations coming from market competition. The broad range of analyses of phenomena in the work-poverty results from studies delivered under a project of the same name “Working Yet Poor.” The project aims to examine the regulatory structures affecting the working conditions and to assess different aspects of regulations that can have a direct and indirect impact on the occurrence of this phenomenon.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The article is devoted to the issue of the employment of medical personnel in medical entities under Polish law. It presents the permissible forms of employment of medical professionals, with particular emphasis on contracts for the provision of health services, the so-called civil law contracts, which have their source in Art. 26 and 27 of the Act on medical activity. The focus is on the differentiation of the protection of the interests of these persons depending on the form of employment adopted. The article also includes a consideration of the scope of reference of the regulation expressed in Art. 22 § 11 and 12 of the Labour Code to civil law contracts concluded by medical entities with persons practising a medical profession.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

Axiology in the profession of a judicial enforcement officer

The aim of the study is to analyse the regulations contained in the Act of Parliament on judicial enforcement officers along with the provisions of the Code of Ethics of Judicial Enforcement Officers in terms of axiology elements. Moreover, the aim of the publication is to pose a question for the purpose of judicial enforcement officer’s duties, understood as a profession of public trust, formulated precisely through the prism of axiology. The raised issues are therefore not only innovative, but also showing a different perspective that characterizes the particular legal profession. 

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31