The Concept of the Employer
by Jeremias Prassl (Author)
Employment law has increasingly struggled to adapt to
complex modern work arrangements, from agency work to corporate groups. This
book suggests that the reason for this failure can be found in our concept of
the employer, which has become riddled with internal contradictions in its
search for a unitary employer, the counterparty to a bilateral contract,
through a series of multi-functional tests focussed on the exercise of a range
of employer functions. As a result of this tension, full employment law
coverage is restricted to a narrow scenario where a single legal entity
exercises all employer functions - a paradigm far from the reality of modern
labour markets characterized by a fragmentation of work, from the rise of
employment agencies and service companies to corporate groups and Private
Equity investors.
These problems can only be addressed by a careful
reconceptualization and the development of a functional concept of the
employer. The book draws on existing models in English, German, and European
law to develop a definition of the employer as the entity, or combination of
entities, exercising functions regulated in a particular domain of employment
law. Each of the two strands of the current concept is addressed in turn to
demonstrate how a more openly multi-functional approach can successfully
overcome the rigidities of the current notion without abandoning a coherent
underlying framework. It fills a crucial gap in employment law and corporate
law with its analysis of the defects in our current understanding of the
employer, and in developing a new functional concept designed to overcome the
problems identified.
