Law determines the legal status of the worker (WoL, V2)
| Quick info | |
|---|---|
| Data type | Numeric |
| Scale | Metric |
| Value labels | not applicable |
| Technical name | labor_priv_contract |
| Category | Labour and labour market |
| Label | Law determines the legal status of the worker (WoL, V2) |
| Related indicators |
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Determines the extent to which the status of the employee is the contractual disposition of the parties.
The effectiveness of legally established labour protection standards depends on how compelling their character is. If the parties to the contract can undermine the legal protection by simply redefining the employment relationship, labour protection is dispensable. Although the need for protection of the employee as the structurally inferior party to the contract is de facto given, labour protection does not apply because a contractually structurally balanced relationship is being presumed.
The original CBR-LRI value is inverted, since in terms of the Privileging Function of employment law, weak definitions and wide margins for the construction of contracts leave space to employers to exclude or marginalise certain groups of workers.
Variable P.6 in the Worlds of Labour (WoL) SPE template - originally CBR-LRI variable 1.
Coding rules
CBR-LRI original with inverted values: Equals 1 if the parties are free to stipulate that the relationship is one of self-employment as opposed to employee status; 0.5 if the law allows the issue of status to be determined by the nature of the contract made by the parties (as in the case of the English common law ‘mutuality of obligation’ test); and 0 if the law mandates employee status on the parties if certain specified criteria are met (such as form of payment, duration of hiring, etc.). Scope for scores between 0 and 1 to reflect changes in the strength of the law.
For detailed coding rules, please consult Fechner/Carlino 2025.
Bibliographic info
Citation: Fechner, Heiner and Marina Carlino (2025). Worlds of Labour (WoL) Leximetric Dataset. University of Bremen.
Related publications: Adams, Zoe, Bhumika Billa, Louise Bishop, Simon Deakin and Tvisha Shroff (2023). CBR Labour Regulation Index (Dataset of 117 Countries, 1970-2022) - Codes and Sources. Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge. at: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.9130.2
Carlino, Marina, Fechner, Heiner, and Schäfer, Andrea (2025). Using leximetrics for coding legal segmentation in employment law: The development and potential of the Worlds of Labour database. In I. Dingeldey, H. Fechner, & U. Mückenberger (Eds.), Constructing Worlds of Labour. Coverage and Generosity of Labour Law as Outcomes of Regulatory Social Policy. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.53-83
Deakin, Simon, Johna Armour and Mathias Siems (2023). CBR Leximetric Datasets [Updated 2023]. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.9130.2
Dingeldey, Irene, Heiner Fechner, Jean-Yves Gerlitz, Jenny Hahs, Ulrich Mückenberger, Worlds of Labour: Introducing the Standard-Setting, Privileging and Equalising Typology as a Measure of Legal Segmentation in Labour Law, Industrial Law Journal, Volume 51, Issue 3, September 2022, Pages 560–597, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwab016
Fechner, Heiner, and Marina Carlino (2025). Coding Legal Segmentation in Employment Law. The Worlds of Labour (WoL) Dataset. SFB 1342 Technical Paper Series, 22. Bremen: SFB 1342. https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/4191
Misc
Project manager(s):
Responsible for data coding: Heiner Fechner (2018-2025)
Responsible for data editing and entry: Heiner Fechner (2024-2025), Andrea Schäfer (2021-2025), Jean-Yves Gerlitz (2018-2020)
Principal Investigators: Irene Dingeldey, Ulrich Mückenberger
Student assistants (2018-2025): Julia Bode, Jessica Bonn, Daniel Euler, Maxime Fischer, Jan-Christopher Floren, Jennifer Götte, Désirée Hoppe, Irina Kyburz, Alexandra Kojnow, Tarek Mahmalat, Karolin Meyer, Johanna Nold, Tanusha Pali, Johannes Ramsauer, Max Sudhoff, Kristina Walter, Caroline Zambiasi.
Data release:
- Version 0.001: Initial release
Revisions: No revisions yet.
This is the first version of the dataset of the thoroughly revised Version 2 WoL template; for the first time, all variables including those originally stemming from CBR-LRI have been coded/revised under WoL criteria. A preliminary version with compiled data (CBR-LRI and WoL) has been published in WeSIS marked by "CBR-LRI-based" and "WoL, V1".
Sources
Own coding, partially based on coding by CBR-LRI.
Fechner, Heiner, and Marina Carlino (2025). Coding Legal Segmentation in Employment Law. The Worlds of Labour (WoL) Dataset. SFB 1342 Technical Paper Series, 22. Bremen: SFB 1342. https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/4191
Partially identical (after revision by WoL) with the original CBR-LRI coding, to be found in:
Deakin, Simon, Johna Armour and Mathias Siems (2023). CBR Leximetric Datasets [Updated 2023]. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.9130.2