Looking for collective protection for digital workers: organization, representation, bargaining

• Main Author: Michele Forlivesi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bologna 2018-07-01
• Series: Labour & Law Issues
• Online Access: https://labourlaw.unibo.it/article/view/8370

The essay analyzes the different ways of organizing the digital workers' union. The digital economy has accelerated the process of fragmentation of work and has weakened traditional forms of collective representation. But at the same time it is established the proliferation of forms of self-organization of gig-workers made possible by digital technologies applied to web. To enforce the effectiveness of union action, the Author proposes to enhance the latitude and the systemic placement of collective rights in the constitutional framework. The real challenge for these spontaneous aggregations is the creation of a national and European network that is able to intercept and summarize the collective interests and to impose forms of bargaining. One way to follow could be that of social movement unionism: that is networking with associations, civil society and citizenship to break the isolation of the worker-platform relationship, reconcile collective interests at the territorial level and stimulate the attention of public opinion and the activation of the institutions. The proposed model presupposes an indissoluble link between social and labor rights and citizenship and requires a direct activation of all the social actors towards platforms: workers, local institutions and citizens-consumers. The public entity, in particular, can play a dual role: promoting neo-concertation practices, becoming an active part of the negotiation process, and stimulating the c.d. "critical consumer" of citizenship. If this undoubtedly opens up new areas of negotiable bargaining for the union in the management and control of the development of the digital economy at the territorial level, it also risks modifying the model of territorial industrial relations in the lobbyist sense. Despite this risk, the territorial level is the framework most suited to accepting the demands of the workers of the gig economy. At local level it is easier to create virtuous mechanisms of social coalition between institutions, spontaneous organizations of workers, confederal unions and citizenship able to influence the market power of the platforms in the urban context through the reputational lever. An emblematic example of this is the stipulation of the Carta dei diritti fondamentali del lavoro digitale nel contesto urbano. Despite the limited effectiveness, this agreement clearly shows how, in terms of the effectiveness of the protections, collective territorial bargaining can create adequate tools for the protection of digital workers, according to a remedial perspective that does not prescribe the qualifying dilemma between autonomy and subordination.