"The contract of employment has, for quite some time, been categorised in academic circles as a relational contract. In recent years, some members of the judiciary have also adopted this categorisation. This article seeks to explore whether such a depiction helps our understanding of the contract of employment and in particular how it might evolve. The literature on relational contract theory is very considerable. This article focuses on the writings of Ian Macneil. The view is taken that regarding such theoretical writings as prescriptive is problematic. This is because Macneil is unable to give full weight to imbalances of power in contractual relationships, and this makes his relational theory inadequate to the central feature of the employment contract, which is, precisely, a power imbalance which makes it difficult to accept that the ‘is' should become the ‘ought'."

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