The concept of the employer. By Jeremias PRASSL.

Published date01 March 2016
AuthorColin Fenwick
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12010
Date01 March 2016
International Labour Review, Vol. 155 (2016), No. 1
Copyright © The authors 2016
Journal compilation © International Labour Organization 2016
BOOK REVIEWS
The concept of the employer. By Jeremias PRASSL.
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015. xxvii + 259 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-873553-3.
The book under review deals with a critical subject matter for the world of work,
and in particular for the role of effective legal regulation in that domain. That subject is
the challenge posed by ongoing changes in the structure of work relationships for the
effective operation of the protective function of employment and labour law. The crux
of the problem – from a legal point of view – lies in the practice of attaching protection
to those who work in what the law can recognize as an employment relationship. The
issue was considered by the International Labour Conference on a number of occasions
leading to the adoption of the ILO’s Employment Relationship Recommendation, 2006
(No. 198).1 The Conference reiterated the signicance of the employment relationship
as a means of delivering protection, and this is reected in Recommendation No. 198.2
Yet the world continues to grapple with the emergence and consequences of non-stand-
ard forms of employment,3 and the possibility that relatively few of the world’s work-
ers are engaged in standard, ongoing employment relationships.4 Nevertheless, the legal
conception of the employment relationship retains its salience and signicance, both in
terms of the protection that it is apt to deliver, and the number of workers protected.5
Dr Jeremias Prassl has chosen in this book – an extension of his doctoral research
at Oxford University – to examine the legal issue from the point of view of how the law
identies an “employer”, as counterparty to a contract with an “employee”. In the large
literature on how law regulates employment relationships, and how law might be modi-
ed to make it t for purpose in light of changes in the structure of work relationships,
1 See ILO: The scope of the employment relationship, Report V, International Labour Conference,
91st Session, 2003, Geneva, 2003; and The employment relationship, Report V(1), International Labour Confer-
ence, 95th Session, 2006, Geneva, 2005.
2 For an overview of the history of Recommendation No. 198, see Giuseppe Casale: “The employment
relationship: A general introduction”, in Giuseppe Casale (ed.): The employment relationship: A comparative
overview, Oxford, Hart/Geneva, ILO, 2011, pp. 1–33.
3 For recent analysis, see ILO: Non-standard forms of employment: Report for discussion at the Meet-
ing of Experts on Non-Standard Forms of Employment (Geneva, 16–19 February 2015), Geneva, 2015, avail-
able at: http://www.ilo.ch/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/meetingdocument/
wcms_336934.pdf [accessed 25 February 2016].
4 See ILO: World Employment and Social Outlook: The changing nature of jobs, Geneva, 2015, available
at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_368626.
pdf [accessed 2 March 2016].
5 Simon Deakin: Addressing labour market segmentation: The role of labour law, Governance and Tri-
partism Department Working Paper No. 52, Geneva, ILO, October 2013, available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---dialogue/documents/publication/wcms_223702.pdf [accessed 2 March 2016].

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