Sources of Labor Law

Lecture 2
 Sources of Labor Law

• Definition: set of legal rules by means of which the object of labor law is
regulated and which are sanctioned by means of the obligation organized
by the state (legal norms and legal rules).
• Classification of sources:
1. material and formal
2. written and unwritten
3. domestic (Constitution, Law, By-laws, collective agreement) and
international (international acts i.e. conventions and recommendations.
 1. Normative acts issued by the state

• Notion: all the acts which are contained in the Constitution of RNM, and in
Labor Law.
• Constitution – the highest act of one State (contains provisions that define the
basic principles of labor relations, the rights and obligations of employed
persons, the basic provisions related to the position, rights and obligations of
workers)
• These provisions are nothing more nothing less than the minimum of
freedoms and rights to citizens of RNM.
 2. Laws and other legal regulations in the field of labor law

• Importance:
1. Historical reasons - only by law is the work of children under 15 years prohibited
2. Political reasons - only by means of the law can workers take positions during contracting
and regulation of labor relations
3. Economic reasons - for example, the law and collective contracts provide workers with
material and health insurance and care for their existence.
• In RNM the legal relations are regulated with Law on labor relations. Also, there are other
laws that regulates different segments of the labor relations such as:
1. Law on employment and unemployment insurance
2. Law on the labor inspectorate
3. Law on the employment of the disabled
4. Law on voluntary work
5. Law on the peaceful resolution of labor disputes, etc.
 3. By-laws as sources of labor law

Acts of the government and administrative bodies regulating some aspects of

labor relations for the implementation of laws issued in the form of:
• decrees,
• decisions,
• regulations and
• instructions
 II. Collective agreements as sources of labor law

• Collective agreements are considered the most original sources.

• Why so important? Because of the fact that these contracts include a
greater number of subjects which may be defined at the time of the
conclusion of the contract or may be undefined and the same is created or
concluded to regulate the status, rights and their obligations in the work
relationship.
• What are collective agreement? They are contracts with which the
employer on the one hand and the employees resp. workers'
representatives, on the other hand, regulate labor relations.
• The first collective contracts were signed after the First World War, first in
Germany in 1918, then in Austria and France a year later.
• In RNM the collective agreements first were accepted by legal science and
then later also by the state.
 III. International sources of labor law

• Why International sources of Labor Law are so important? Because of the

migration of workers as a factor caused by their economic and social
position in the national state on the one hand and the increasingly powerful
development of the international labor market.
• The main actor as an international legislator in the sphere of Labor Law –
International Labor Organization (ILO) through its normative
acts(conventions and recommendations).
 Secondary sources of labor law

• Legal Science – especially when it comes to the authentic need of the

interpretation of laws and legal norms of the Law on labor relation.
• Customary law as a source of labor law - This right arises spontaneously and
does not contain social norms.
• Judicial practice as a source of labor law - res judicata has effect only for the
parties to the dispute and as such are applied in the concrete case, not as in
Anglo-Saxon states, where similar cases in the future be judged as previous
ones.