ADDITIONAL AGREEMENTS BETWEEN PARTIES TO AN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP IN LIGHT OF THE EMPLOYEE’S PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT

Abstract

The paper deals with a controversial issue of the admissibility of evaluation, in light of the employee’s preferential treatment, of additional stipulations of contracts signed by parties to an employment relationship, which do not form the underlying condition for their execution. The main aim of the work is to prove that the rule of the employee’s preferential treatment, contrary to the literal content of article 18 of the Labour Code should be understood in broader terms: as one that protects the entire work relationship including additional agreements. In principle, there are three types of argument that provide a rationale for the above thesis. Firstly, it is the nature of the rule of the employee’s preferential treatment which acts as a general and basic norm in the labour law, and the role it plays in the Labour Code. Secondly, it is the mechanisms characteristics of this rule that may be found in work regulations other than those referred to in the above mentioned article 18, and in particular in the very nature of the semi imperative norms dominating in the labour law. Thirdly, it is the result of the entire process of interpretation of article 18 of the Labour Code, including, in particular, the functional and purposeful directives.