1.1. CONCEPT OF LABOR LAW

Labor Law is the branch of Law composed of rules and principles, systematically ordered, that regulate the subordinated work relationship between employee and employer, accompanied by sanctions for the case of noncompliance with their commands.

Labor Law, as a rule of conduct observed from its objective aspect, has as its main goal the prevention of conflicts arising from the confrontation between capital and labor, in order to preserve life in society and the consequent social peace.

In fact, viewed under the classical theory that gave rise to Labor Law, this branch is concerned solely with the subordinated employment relationship. Thus, other work relationships, such as the provision of freelance services (mainly carried out by professionals such as lawyers, doctors, dentists, engineers, among others), relationships derived from contracts for work or agricultural partnerships, etc., are beyond its scope.

Therefore, it is of great importance to delimit the concepts of employee and employer, as classical Labor Law is limited to setting rules of conduct for these social actors.

Currently, there is a growing movement to expand the scope of Labor Law to cover other work relationships, i.e., those relationships involving some types of non-subordinate workers. This is because, with each passing day, the number of workers classified as employees is decreasing, due to the phenomenon of globalization and, consequently, the flexibilization of labor laws.

In Italy, for example, a significant portion of labor legislation applies to workers defined as "parasubordinated," a category represented by those who provide services in favor of another, without the high degree of legal subordination that characterizes the traditional employment relationship, but not entirely independent.

The first step in expanding the aforementioned scope of Labor Law has already been taken in Brazil, in the field of jurisdictional competence.

Through Constitutional Amendment No. 45/2004, which amended the wording of article 114 of the Brazilian Constitution, the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Labor Court was expanded to process and judge any and all disputes involving the work relationship, not just those arising from the employment relationship.