民法上的勞務供給契約，除了僱傭契約（勞動契約）外，亦可能為委任或承攬契約，然勞務提供者惟有取得勞工身分，始能納入勞動法的保護中，勞工定義因而有勞動保護法令的守門員之稱。勞動基準法第2條第6款於2019年5月15日將「勞動契約」定義修訂為「約定勞雇關係而具有從屬性之契約」，雖確立了從屬性為勞工之特徵，但勞工定義的難題仍未解決，不論德國於2017年4月1日起施行之德國民法第611a條，就勞工之定義為立法，或是司法院釋字第740號解釋，以工作者得否自由決定勞務給付之方式，並自行負擔業務風險來認定保險業務員之契約性質，均是處理勞工定義的嘗試。全球近期因數位經濟發展，發展出群眾外包與零工經濟等經濟型態，呈現出有別以往的「去僱用關係化」的趨勢，對照我國人格上、組織上與經濟上之三個從屬性為判斷，對於勞工定義實屬狹窄，面對各界提出應為新的勞工定義或是為準勞工之立法，本文認為當務之急應是釐清從屬性的內涵，以及劃清三個從屬性之定義與關係，故本文以從屬性特徵與認定趨勢為起點，全面檢討從屬性之意義及其勞動保護的關係，主張應回歸人格上從屬性來認定勞工身分，以避免勞動法令的人之適用範圍將愈來愈窄，使我國的工作者面臨「去勞動法」的危機。

In Taiwan’s civil law, Types of service contract include an employment contract, a mandate contract or a contract of hire of work. However, only employees will fall in the protection of labor laws. Thus, the definition of employee plays the role of goalkeeper in laws regarding labor protection. Article 2, paragraph 6 of the Labor Standards Act was amended on 15th May, 2019. The amendment defines the employment contract as “an agreement that establishes an employee-employer relationship with subordination to authority.” However, it does not solve the difficulty in defining employee. The status of employee is still an “all-or-none” problem. Taiwan’s theory and practice have long depends on subordinate test, including personal subordination, organizational subordination and financial subordination, to define employee. The definition of labor is quite narrow. Recently, the rise of the digital economy leads to the development of crowd outsourcing and gig economy. Under this trend, different from focusing on the problem of de-employment relationship in the past, some suggest developing new definition of employee or enacting protective law for “employee-like working persons.” Nonetheless, the most urgent task is to clarify the concept of subordination test, and the definition and relationship of the three subordinates. Germany passed Article 611a of Civil Code on 1st April, 2017 which legalized the definition of employees. In Taiwan, Interpretation No. 740, released on 21st October, 2016, determined the nature of insurance solicitor’s service contract by whether a worker is free to determine its payment and whether the worker should bear the business risk by himself. This study starts with the development of subordinate test. To avoid the scope of labor law getting more and more narrow, causing Taiwan’s workers face the crisis of de-employment relationship, this article will also review the meaning of subordinate test and its relationship with labor protection.