Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
labor contract

labor contract

5 2.8
An agreement between workers and their employer that says pay, benefits and work rules
  • noun
  • /ˈleɪbər ˈkɒntrækt/
  • Formal
translation icon : contrato laboral
  • Poor harvests combined with abusive labor contracts hampered freedpeople who worked as farmers.
  • labor contract system

Examples

  • The integrated producers had agreed to labor contracts that paid steelworkers extremely well.

    Blog text (19)

  • Negotiating labor contracts remained the bureau's primary task in Bartow County.

    Academic text (2008)

  • We have to turn the labor contracts to our own advantage.

    Academic text (2003)

  • City Hall would be in a position to scratch all the generous labor contracts and start over.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Why did Italians apparently not live up to their labor contracts?

    Academic text (1991)

  • You are making the point that labor contracts take priority over bondholders.

    Blog text (29)

  • In 1988, Baogang participated in the experimental adoption of the labor contract system.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The Board of the American Airlines Pilots Union approved a new labor contract today.

  • General Motors workers ratified a new labor contract by a wide margin.

  • In some states, schools are bound by labor contracts to maintain a particular teacher-pupil ratio.

Synonyms

contract
vslabor contract
∞ 2.8

A written agreement between people or companies that the law can enforce

is the specific type used to set employment pay, benefits, and conditions
labor agreement
vslabor contract
  • Formal
3 3.2

A written contract between workers and the company about pay and working rules

is the same formal agreement with identical focus on pay and conditions
collective agreement
vslabor contract
  • UK
1 3.5

A written deal between an employer and employees, usually through a union, that sets pay and work conditions

applies more generally to agreements with or without collective representation

How Favorable

labor contract
  • Formal
5 2.8
employment contract
  • Formal
5 2.7

Surface Forms

labor contract singular
labor contracts plural
labour contracts plural
labour contract singular

Morphology

labor + contract

The meaning is directly compositional: 'labor' (workers/employment) + 'contract' (a written agreement) yields a formal agreement concerning employment terms, which a learner who knows both words can infer. This noun-noun compounding pattern is common cross-linguistically and in legal/employment contexts, so the phrase is immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Labor contract comes from the simple image of a written promise about work: labor means 'work' and contract means a written 'agreement'. So a labor contract is a formal paper that lists pay, hours and rules between workers and employers.