Can a Business Corporation and a Registered Company Be the Subject of an Employment Relationship as an Employee?

Abstract

The 2013 Civil Code declared both the general partnership and the limited partnership to be legal entities. Consequently, these two business entities can no longer have employees. The International Labour Convention provides that only natural persons can be employees. Therefore, it is being examined whether, if these two business entities operate as a civil law group or partnership, they could be regarded as employees. The issue is further complicated by the Self-employment Directive, under which a person working in this capacity cannot employ an assistant. Accordingly, when work is carried out jointly by a group or partnership, the members of the group must be legally distinct from one another so that it appears that several employees are performing a single job. From this perspective, the author presents cases in which collectives were recognized as employees.