Legal Regulation of Employment Probation Period: Experience of Foreign Countries

Abstract

In times of economic instability, organizations are looking for minimization costs andincrease its efficiency. The legal regulation of labour offers possibility of conductingprobation at the beginning of employment to check employee’s labour qualities andcompliance with the work. The employee could also evaluate the working conditions at thenew employer. Probation is attractive for the employer as a simplified and cost-effectiveway to dismiss employees. The employer has the right to select permanent employeeswho have successfully passed the probation, since employees on probation are subjectonly to minimum labour standards. The aim of the research is a comprehensive analysisof the balance of flexibility and rigidity in employment legal regulation in foreign countriesin order to develop recommendations for optimizing probation labour legislation. Themethods are analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization. The features of legalregulation in the main legal families affect legal regulation of labour in foreign states,important from the point of view of finding a balance between employers and employees interests in terms of flexibility and rigidity of regulation of labour. The article considerstwo main models of legal regulation of probation abroad. They are characterized byboth general and special patterns. Common patterns include: lack of a state definitionof probation; consolidation of a single list of criteria for regulation of probation (duration,rules for its changing and termination); prevention of discrimination and consideration ofthe legal status of special subjects to eliminate it and improve position in labour market.Special patterns are associated with mechanism of fixing maximum period, types ofemployment contracts, concepts of regulation of labour, other legally fixed periods ofwork that can affect legal status of employee on probation. The result of the analysis isproposals for improving regulation of labour in terms of combining flexibility and rigidityof legal regulation of labour.
For citation: Batusova E.S. (2021) Employment Probation Period: Legal Experience of Foreign Countries. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 1, pp. 244–269 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17323/2072-8166.2021.1.244.269