(Un)justified application of labour law rules of dismissal protection on self-employed persons

Abstract

In this paper the rights of employees and self-employed persons and the distinction between them are analysed, with the special focus on dismissal protection. Using the comparative and normative method, the author analyses these legal questions in legal systems in Spain, Austria, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland, and the United States of America, including the existence of the mid-category of semi-dependent self-employed persons in the first three abovementioned jurisdictions and practical consequences of their existence. Dismissal protection of self-employed persons represents a legal question that is not sufficiently researched in comparison to the dismissal protection of employees. The hypothesis of the author in this paper has been based on the opinion that self-employed persons who work for others are justifiably deprived of dismissal protection, unlike semi-dependent self-employed persons who are unjustifiably deprived of it, especially because the second mentioned category does not experience entrepreneurial risks and chances. Also, the question of dismissal protection of self-employed persons is very relevant when we consider the amount of misuse of this occurrence and cost savings which employers often have when employing them. In the end, de lege ferenda solutions and their implications for other legal systems are proposed by the author of the paper.