La distinction entre employés et ouvriers en droit allemand, belge, français et italien

In the four jurisdictions, labour law has granted a different status to workers said to be "white collar" and others said to be "blue collar workers". Therefore labour law had to formulate a criterion precise enough to put each particular case in one of these two categories. This required desperate efforts because the distinction is grounded partly in real situations but also on biases which distort the perception of reality. By studying the way in which lawyers have reasoned, one can compare various ways of approaching a same problem and note the unease of these lawyers and their approach stripped of what the peculiar features through which these phenomena manifest themselves in each country may accidentally present.