chart on legal labour protection

What do we call legal labour protection?   

Legal labour protection is referred to as the totality of legal, economic, technical as well as organisational standards that serve to ensure the safety and health of workers at work. The term legal labour protection is ambiguous and should therefore be concretised as appropriate.  

Referring to the conditions of a market economy, the definition of labour law protection can be explained as the totality of legal norms, research, technical and organisational measures. They are aimed at protecting the rights of the employee, protecting his or her life and health, protecting against dangerous factors that are harmful in the working environment, and creating optimal working conditions for the employee, taking into account ergonomic, physiological and psychological factors.  

The understanding of labour law was shaped in the early days of industrial development. Originally it meant the protection of the fundamental interests of the workforce, later on in labour law itself - of which it is an essential element - it varied as to the object of regulation, purpose and scope.  

employee on the job

The post-war literature, despite the discrepancies in the scope of labour protection and its extent, showed a fairly uniform view of the subject of labour protection. For it is not labour protection according to Kotarbinski's definition, who defined it as: "all activities which have the character of overcoming difficulties to satisfy someone's essential needs" or the protection of the world of wage labour or its interests, but the protection of living labour, i.e. the labour force.  

The subject of labour protection is the employee. An employee is defined as a person who is employed on the basis of a contract of employment, appointment, appointment, election or cooperative employment contract.  

Purpose of labour protection law 

Some consider the primary objective of workers' rights to be the protection of the worker's ability to work. For this reason, they are provided with a guarantee of both social and economic security.  

Others, consider the protection of the worker's health and life as the primary objective of labour protection. A worker's good health provides a guarantee of his or her ability to work. Taking into account the World Health Organisation's definition, according to which health is not only the absence of disease, but a general state of well-being, both physical, mental and social. The primary objective of labour protection thus appears to be to ensure the worker's health as understood according to the WHO definition. Labour law, gives comfort and mental peace to workers. It makes them feel safe and cared for. 

How do we understand the concept of labour protection? 

employees at a training course on legal labour protection

Legal science also draws attention to the way in which the concept of labour protection is understood. It can be understood in a broad and a narrow sense. In the broad sense, the concept is identified with the function of labour law protection and thus understood as the protection of employees' interests. It encompasses all labour law standards and provisions that regulate obligations and liability for non-compliance or labour law standards that have a protective character. These are:  

  • protection of the permanence of the employment relationship,  
  • remuneration for work,  
  • maximum working hours,   
  • minimum holiday.  

In a narrower sense, labour protection is a set of standards aimed at ensuring safety by employers and safeguarding the health of workers in the work process. In this view, the object of labour protection will be to protect the worker from the harmful effects of the working environment on his or her health and from life-threatening hazards.