Reform: more protection for temporary workers - Gaymer Scrap 'outmoded' contracts says employment guruEmployment contracts are outdated and should be scrapped in favour of new, more flexible 'contracts of work', according to top employment lawyer Janet Gaymer.Ms Gaymer, head of employment at City firm Simmons & Simmons and a former chairwoman of the Employment Lawyers Association, argues in her new book TheEmployment Relationship that employment contracts are 'outmoded' and 'under strain'.'Changing patterns of work - including part-time, flexible working and self-employment - mean the relationship between employer and employee can no longer be neatly defined,' said Ms Gaymer.

'The employment contract as we know it is under serious strain as a result of these non-traditional working relationships, and so change is needed.'Ms Gaymer proposes the introduction of a new 'contract of work', designed to give greater protection to those in temporary or less traditional working relationships.

'Many individuals ought to have the protection of the common law, yet do not because of the outdated mode of the current employment contract,' she said.

Change of the current system depended on 'whether the judiciary will be brave enough to say that the old ideas of contract are old hat, and a serious change is needed'.

Gareth Brahams, a senior solicitor at London firm Lewis Silkin, agreed that the law of contract is not always appropriate for an employment relationship.

'The relationship between an employer and employee by its very nature tends to evolve over time, whereas a contract is fixed in time,' he said.He added: 'The law of commercial contracts does allow for some flexibility, but is by its nature still too rigid and generally not a good fit with a relationship which is ultimately personal and not entirely commercial.' Victoria MacCallum