INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT VS. EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT AND OTHER SIMILAR CONTRACTS

Abstract

The topicality of the article “Independent Contractor Agreement vs. Employment Contract and Other Similar Contracts” is determined by the fact that the Independent Contractor Agreement is often confused with the Employment Contract. Thus there is a need to defi ne the particular differences between the Independent Contractor Agreement and Employment Contract. The contract in civil transactions is the most common and the most important document in legal transactions, because it is used for the exchange of material goods, necessary for human existence. The Civil Law regulates the Independent Contractor Agreement very closely, basically describing only one type of the contractor agreement – an agreement for producing a product. The Labour Law provides a possibility to conclude an employment contract for an indefi nite period of time and for a fi xed term. Generaly, the employment contract is concluded for an indefi nite time period. However, the fi xed term employment contract can be concluded only in special cases, as provided in the Labour Law. At the same time the maturity term for the Independent Contractor Agreement arrives when the ordered work is done, unless there is a deadline specifi ed in the agreement. The defi nitions of contracts suggest that both the employment contract and contractor agreement are about the fulfi lment of certain work or ordered task. Legally these contracts are distinguished by criterion, provided in the Paragraph Two of Section 2179 of the Civil Law. Namely, if the purpose of the legal relationships is a particular result of a certain amount of work, not the work in general, then the contract is deemed to be the Independent Contractor Agreement.