Abstract

One of the main objectives of the 2012 labour market reform is to promote the open ended contract as the prevailing contractual form of employment. The essay shows how this prevalence over other forms of contractual arrangement is gained, highlighting how the dominance of the open ended contract reaches beyond the employment relationship. In this respect, Act 92/2012 reinforces the system of legal assumptions to confront the wide spread use of self-employment arrangements by converting these in open ended employment contracts. In the closing part of the essay a reflection is brought about on the impossibility to reconcile this preference for the open ended contract with the labour market tendency to overcome the society of the "permanent job".