Person: Aloisi, Antonio
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Antonio
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Aloisi
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IE University
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IE Law School
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Digital & Tech Law
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Publication “A Worker is a Worker is a Worker” Collective Bargaining and Platform Work, the Case of Deliveroo Couriers(SSRN, 2019) Aloisi, Antonio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The focus of this commentary is the compatibility of Section 296(1)(b) of the 1992 Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A) with Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), insofar as it excludes workers who do not provide their service personally from being represented by a union on the negotiation of pay and terms and conditions of work. The case shows how the domestic term worker may be equivocal and its interpretation seems at odds with various international standards, including the ILO’s instruments. This confusion raises the question of whether steps should be taken to “bring domestic law into alignment [with European law] in the interests of legal certainty.”Publication Artificial intelligence is watching you at work: digital suveillance, employee monitoring, and regulatory issues in the EU context.(University of Illinois Press, 2019) Aloisi, Antonio; Gramano, Elena; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75By affecting activities in both traditional and modern industries, countless invasive devices constitute a burgeoning terrain for new forms of monitoring assisted by artificial intelligence and algorithms; these range from badges to tablets, from wearables to exoskeletons, from collaborative software to virtual personal assistant, from computer networks to face recognition systems. From a legal perspective, these tools constantly collect, produce, share and combine data that may be used by the employer for all the many different reasons, thus leading to a “genetic variation” of the organizational, monitoring and disciplinary prerogative, considered as the core of the employment contract. When it comes to recruiting, managing, and vetting the workforce, AI applications can be considered as an effective combination of big data analytics and algorithmic governance. Only recently, have international, European and domestic institutions started considering how to update existing regulation in order to face these complex and far-reaching challenges. This article assesses the effects of AI application on the employment relationship, with a view to understanding how social and legal institutions act, react or adapt to a potential experience of unprecedented digital surveillance in the workplace, entrenching command-and-control relationships between management and workers. The paper is organized as follows. After describing the new arenas of workplace surveillance, we provide a comprehensive conceptualization of AI application. Section 2 explores the latest generation of digital devices, understood in their broadest definition encompassing both physical supports as well as intangible tools. In many cases, AI prevents accidents caused by human error or reduce the hazard (or even the burden) of routine and menial activities. On the other hand, these software and devices create an effective, invasive and elusive system of watchfulness increasing conformity and promoting docility. Section 3 describes how the EU has set the tone globally in the regulation of privacy and data protection. In particular, we scrutinize the new GDPR thoroughly. One concern on its effectiveness revolves around the limits on the automated decision-making processes (Art. 22). Section 4 describes how some European civil law systems deal with the regulation of surveillance of workers. The cases of France, Germany and Italy are analyzed by stressing the common elements and loopholes. Section 5 assesses some conclusions by verifying whether the current regulations are suitable to cope with the adoption of AI at work.Publication Workers Without Workplaces and Unions Without Unity: Non-Standard Forms of Employment, Platform Work and Collective Bargaining(SSRN, 2019-05-14) Aloisi, Antonio; Gramano, Elena; Pulignano, Valeria; Hendrickx, Frank; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Non-standard forms of employment (NSFE) are on the rise in different sectors and various countries all over the world. Concomitantly, technological and organizational change represents a major challenge for collective bargaining systems, given that they are often still predicated on the concept of a standard employment relationship. Meanwhile, some innovative and spontaneous solutions are emerging. In order for collective bargaining, unions, and business associations to continue to be impactful in the “new world of work”, it may be necessary to adapt the way they currently operate. There may also be a need to adjust or update the relevant legal frameworks. This article investigates challenges to freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining for non-standard workers, from a legal and practical perspective. In particular, the article examines the relevant legal framework with a critical approach and stresses the relevance of legal hurdles that non-standard workers face. After presenting the legal determinants of NSFE, the paper provides an analysis of existing legal frameworks regulating the organization of non-standard forms of work and the negotiation of terms and conditions of work at the supranational level, with a particular focus on the implications related to competition law and its rigid limits in the European Union system. Finally, it sketches a mapping of nascent initiatives of workers’ organization, by distinguishing classic resources of unionization from other tools (e.g. social media groups, strategic litigation, rating widgets) in a selection of European Union countries.Publication ‘With Great Power Comes Virtual Freedom’. A Review of the First Italian Case Holding That (Food-Delivery) Platform Workers Are Not Employees(SSRN, 2018) Aloisi, Antonio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This dispatch concentrates on a review of the first Italian ruling on the legal status of six platform workers who demanded to be reclassified as employees of the food-delivery company Foodora. Last April, the Employment Tribunal of Turin rejected their claims on the basis of the freedom they enjoyed in deciding if and when to work and even to disregard previously agreed shifts. The case note is organised as follows. Section I describes the main facts underlying the legal dispute, according to the judge’s description. Section II offers a context analysis of the Italian legal framework by clarifying the differences between the notions of employment and self-employment. Particular attention is paid to the most recent legislative interventions aimed at extending labour protections to independent workers whose personal activity is organised by the client. By arguing that the judge failed to consider the specificities of the digital work model, section III criticises the reasoning relying on a too narrow and formalistic understanding of the notion of subordination as well as the conclusive relevance attributed to the riders’ presumed flexibility. Section IV closes by summarising the main rulings decided in a set of European countries and providing some reflections on the possibility of applying the current legislation to platform worker. In sum, the dispatch advocates that, in order to properly classify the nature of the actual activity performed by platform workers, judges should assess the role of digital tools when it comes to organising, monitoring and disciplining the workforce, rather than merely focusing on discontinuity and flexibility that are key features of these non-standard work arrangements enabled by technology.Publication Commoditized Workers. Case Study Research on Labour Law Issues Arising from a Set of 'On-Demand/Gig Economy' Platforms(University of Illinois Press, 2015-08-14) Aloisi, Antonio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75In the framework of the so-called “sharing economy”, the number of on-demand companies matching labour supply and demand is on the rise. These schemes may enlarge opportunities for people willing to find a job or to top up their salaries. Despite the upsides of creating new peer marketplaces, these platforms may also be used to circumvent employment regulation, by operating informally in traditionally regulated markets. Literature showed how, by 2009, over 2 million worker accounts had been generated within these frameworks. Productivity may be fostered but, at the same time, a new version of Taylorism is disseminated (i.e. the fragmentation of labour into hyper-temporary jobs – they call them microtasks – on a virtual assembly line), strengthened by globalisation and computerisation. All these intermediaries recruit freelance or casual workers (these continue to be independent contractors even though many indicators seem to reveal a disguised employment relationship). Uncertainty and insecurity are the price for extreme flexibility. A noteworthy volume of business risk is shifted to workers, and potential costs as benefits or unemployment insurance are avoided. Minimum wages are often far from being reached. This paper will present a case study analysis of several “on-demand work” platforms, starting from the Amazon Mechanical Turk, one of the first schemes founded in 2005, which is arguably “employing humans-as-a-service”. It splits a single service in several micro “Human Intelligence Tasks” (such as tagging photographs, writing short descriptions, transcribing podcasts, processing raw data); “Turkers/Providers” (workers) are selected by “Requesters” to rapidly accomplish assignments online, are then rated according to an internal system and are finally paid (also in gaming credits) only if delivery is accepted. After having signed up and worked within some platforms, I comment upon TaskRabbit (thousands people on the service who bid to do simple manual tasks), Handy and Wonolo (personal assistance at a local level), oDesk and Freelancer (online staffing), Uber and Lyft (peer-to-peer ridesharing), Airbnb (hosting service), InnoCentive (engineering solutions), Axiom (legal research or service), BitWine (consultancy). Finally I highlight downsides and upsides of work in these platforms by studying terms of service or participation agreements to which both parties have to agree. I look into several key features such as (i) means of exchange/commodities, (ii) systems of payment, (iii) demographics, (iv) legal issues concerning status and statutory protection of workers, indicators of subordination, treatment of sickness, benefits and overtime, potential dispute resolution, and deprived “moral valence of work” and I discuss potential strategies to address these issues.Publication Hierarchies without firms? Vertical disintegration, outsourcing and the nature of the platform(SSRN, 2018-02) Aloisi, Antonio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75New forms of labour intermediation through digital platforms such as Uber, Deliveroo or Amazon Mechanical Turk can be conceptualised as the latest stage of a long-lasting process of disaggregation of the firm and “disorganisation of labour law.” In particular, the rise of platform-mediated work can be seen as an instantiation of deliberate business strategies aimed at outsourcing labour while retaining intense and pervasive managerial prerogative. The phenomenon is exacerbating several unresolved tensions inherent in the contemporary world of work, let alone the perverse impact that “platformisation” is having on precariousness and social inequalities. In short, new technologies allow platforms to abandon traditional methods of workplace governance and adopt a stronger version of the “command and control” logic. Direct interaction is replaced by a significant reliance on information communications technology: workers are monitored more closely and intimately than they ever used to be by means of tech tools, including algorithms, artificial intelligence and customers’ reviews. This leads to the question whether the existing concept of “firm” is appropriate to face this transformational new reality, whether minor or major adaptations may be necessary or whether we need a total re-invention of the underlying assumptions of the employment relationship. After describing the theoretical antecedents of hierarchical outsourcing, the article explores the literature on the nature of “non-standard forms of firm” by applying transaction-cost economics. In an attempt to update the incomplete trichotomy among “hierarchies,” “markets” and “networks,” I present a complementary model combining pre-existing schemes. By building on theories unfolding the disarticulation of the formal employing entity and the pulverisation of work-related responsibilities, this paper demystifies the prototypical business model of rampant socio-economic actors.Publication ¿Des-plataformizando el mercado de trabajo? Un análisis de las disposiciones sobre “gestión algorítmica” de la propuesta de Directiva de la UE sobre el trabajo en plataformas(Revista jurídica de trabajo, 2022-12) Aloisi, Antonio; Potocka Sionek, Nastazja; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Los trabajadores están siendo gestionados por las tecnologías de manera creciente. Antes de extenderse a segmentos más grandes del mercado laboral, los sistemas de gestión algorítmica eran una característica distintiva del trabajo en plataformas. El ejercicio del poder a través de plataformas laborales digitales es una de las causas de las precarias condiciones de trabajo en este ámbito, una cuestión que pronto podría afectar a un grupo más amplio de trabajadores de los sectores económicos tradicionales. Este artículo aclara las disposiciones que regulan la gestión algorítmica en la propuesta de Directiva de la UE sobre la mejora de las condiciones de trabajo en las plataformas, que aborda la vigilancia automatizada y las prácticas automatizadas de toma de decisiones. La Directiva propuesta exige la divulgación de su adopción y establece derechos de información y explicación en relación con las categorías de acciones supervisadas y los parámetros considerados. Las disposiciones sobre gestión algorítmica se aplican a todos los trabajadores de plataformas, incluidos los trabajadores verdaderamente autónomos. Antes de ofrecer una visión general razonada de las medidas jurídicas previstas en el texto propuesto, este artículo aborda el proceso que condujo a la propuesta de Directiva con el fin de revelar los antecedentes y las alternativas a la formulación actual. Aborda la interacción entre el texto y otros instrumentos que regulan el despliegue de tecnologías para la gestión de los trabajadores. Los pasos destinados a hacer que las plataformas rindan cuentas son notables, pero la técnica regulatoria podría dar lugar a modelos parcialmente superpuestos, aumentando así la inseguridad jurídica y la arbitrariedad.Publication The Quantified Worker: Law and Technology in the Modern Workplace, by Ifeoma Ajunwa(Wiley, 2023-10-13) Aloisi, Antonio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This book review is also available in French, in Revue internationale du Travail 163 (1), and Spanish, in Revista Internacional del Trabajo 143 (1).Publication Activités essentielles, télétravail et surveillance numérique: l'effet panoptique de la pandémie(Wiley, 2022-06-07) Aloisi, Antonio; De Stefano, Valerio; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Avec la pandémie, les pratiques de surveillance numérique ont explosé sur les lieux de travail physiques et virtuels, modifiant les rapports de force professionnels, au profit de l'employeur. Tant les travailleurs essentiels que les télétravailleurs ont fait les frais de cette évolution, qui risque de survivre à la crise. Dans ce contexte, les auteurs s'interrogent sur l'adéquation du cadre juridique européen sur la protection des données. Pour eux, le dialogue social, l'autonomisation des travailleurs et la maîtrise des techniques numériques figurent parmi les moyens à mobiliser pour améliorer la protection des travailleurs tout en promouvant la flexibilité, le bien-être et la compétitivité.Publication Actividades esenciales, trabajo a distancia y vigilancia digital. Estrategias para hacer frente al panóptico de la pandemia de COVID-19(Wiley, 2022-06-02) Aloisi, Antonio; European Union's Horizon 2020; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75La expansión de la vigilancia digital a raíz de la COVID-19 ha reconfigurado las relaciones de poder en los entornos profesionales. Aquí se analiza críticamente la interacción entre esa vigilancia intrusiva y la ampliación de las prerrogativas empresariales en el lugar de trabajo físico y digital. Con la supervisión excesiva como denominador común de las actividades «esenciales» y «distanciables», se estudian los inconvenientes para ambas categorías de trabajadores durante la pandemia (y después). Se evalúa la idoneidad del marco jurídico de la Unión Europea para abordar la gestión basada en datos. El diálogo social, el empoderamiento de los trabajadores y la alfabetización digital se consideran formas eficaces de promover la flexibilidad, el bienestar y la competitividad.