The concept of worker in Community social law

Francisco Liberal Fernandes

Keywords

Labour Law

Abstract

Paid work (and the notion of worker implicit in it) is viewed by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) - as well as by the Treaties that preceded it - from a dual perspective: as a factor of production and as an activity inseparable from the person providing it in the context of an employment relationship. As an economic factor, work is subject to a discipline aimed at creating a European labour market by enshrining the free movement of workers within the Union (Article 45 et seq. of the TFEU).