The employment relationship from which the rights and obligations of the participants in the work process are created is the employment relationship prescribed by law. An employment relationship refers to a relationship between a worker and an employer that is independent of the employment contract. The application of labor legislation and regulations depends on the actual employment relationship between the employee and the employer. The essential components of the employment relationship are: voluntariness, the obligation to personally perform work (personality), subordination (subordination), onerosity (payability) and permanence (continuity) of work. These elements are a feature of the entire employment relationship, ie from the process of establishing an employment relationship to the termination of employment. Contrary to these characteristics, we also distinguish the components inherent in the employment relationship that are still in the process of establishing an employment relationship, such as the need to establish an employment relationship and the existence of conditions for employment. The legal relationship between the state and civil servants is dominated by the characteristics of the contractual relationship. As an employment relationship, the civil service relationship, according to its essential characteristics, belongs to the field of private law. However, this does not exclude some points of contact with public law (for example, related to the legal nature of the rights, obligations and responsibilities of public officials). In the Republic of Croatia, the collective labor rights of civil servants are almost equal to the collective labor rights of employees in the economy (collective bargaining is limited to the scope of the salary system regulated by law). When regulating the relationship of civil servants as an employment relationship, the state enacted strong legal provisions on the establishment of such a relationship (employment of civil servants), classification of jobs and salaries, performance appraisal system, disciplinary liability and termination of employment..