ABSTRACT
The changes in the societal conditions of late capitalism, including the changes in working life, have led to debates on the adequacy, justification and efficiency of labour law regulation; labour law, according to most commentators, is in crisis.1 In recent years, this debate has been affected by the broader public discussion on the crisis facing the economic system as a whole.2 The debate has often focused on the differentiation that has developed between various modes of employment, including the rapid increase of atypical forms of work. Many have argued that these new forms severely challenge the way in which labour law is supposed to operate and even the fundamental ideas justifying this field of law.3 The labour law regulation has been criticised for protecting only those employees who have permanent and full-time contracts and making employment of this kind a norm, the standard employment relationship (SER).4 This standardisation of employment also presumes a bilateral contract between employer and
employee.5 The feminist critique has gone further by pointing out that the SER also represents a typically masculine way of working.6
