Reflections on working time - An essential element of the individual employment contract

AuthorCarmen-Constantina Nenu
PositionFaculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, Department of Law and Public Adminstration, University of Pitesti, Pitesti, Romania
Pages50-55
AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, www.juridicalj ournal.univagora.ro
ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677
No. 2 (2014), pp. 50-55
50
REFLECTIONS ON WORKING TIME - AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE
INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT
C.C.Nenu
Carmen-Constantina Nenu
Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, Department of Law and Public Adminstration
University of Pitesti, Pitesti, Romania
*Correspondence: Carmen-Constantina Nenu, University of Pitesti, 1 Tg din Vale St.,
Pitesti, Romania
E-mail: carmennenu2006@yahoo.com
Abstract
Conducting work within a specified number of hours and according to a certain
program is a defining feature of the individual labour contract, one of the criteria for
differentiating it from civil or commercial legal relationships with a similar object.
Considering these characteristics of the employment contract, it is particularly important to
analyze the legal framework to determine whether the current statutory regulation of
international and European level is respected by the national law. It is equally important to
identify the main lines of action, so as to create a balance between capital positions
represented b y the employer and labour represented by the employee, within the individual
employment relationship.
Keywords: work program, legal relationship, balance, labour intensity, labour
relations
Introduction
In the execution of the individual employment contract, the employee is obliged to
work a number of hours , daily, weekly or monthly, according to a schedule established
unilaterally by the employer or conventionally, compliance with which constitutes the core of
labour discipline.
Labour legislation should reflect the need to ensure a better balance between the
interests of both the employer and the employee, that is, between the aim of the first to
continuously streamline operations and increase productivity and purpose of the latter to
rebuild their own capacity to work and pa y attention to the personal side of life,
simultaneously with professional development. Based on this objective, both internationally
and at European Union level and also at the level of each member state special attention shall
be given to matching working time and rest time, in order to create working conditions that
must provide workers genuine opportunities to achieve professional and personal
development.
International regulation of working time
The International Labour Organization has paid particular attention to working time,
considering it an essential element of the employment relationship, whose duration produces
consequences on the personal and professional development of the individual engaged in a
dependent activity. The particular importance placed on working time by the International
Labour Organization is reflected in the very considerations this body’s Constitution.
According to them, "there are employment circumstances involving injustice, misery and
hardship for a large number of people, "requiring” urgent improvement of these conditions,
for example, in the regulation of working time, in setting a maximum duration of the day and

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