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‘With Great Power Comes Virtual Freedom’. A Review of the First Italian Case Holding That (Food-Delivery) Platform Workers Are Not Employees

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dc.contributor.authorAloisi, Antonio
dc.contributor.rorhttps://ror.org/02jjdwm75
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-13T14:31:37Z
dc.date.available2024-11-13T14:31:37Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractThis 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.
dc.description.peerreviewedyes
dc.description.statusPublished
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dc.identifier.citationAloisi, Antonio, ‘With Great Power Comes Virtual Freedom’. A Review of the First Italian Case Holding That (Food-Delivery) Platform Workers Are Not Employees (October 1, 2018). Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3260669
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3260669
dc.identifier.issn1095-6654
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/3343
dc.journal.titleComparative Labor Law & Policy Journal
dc.language.isoen
dc.page.total11
dc.publisherSSRN
dc.relation.departmentDigital & Tech Law
dc.relation.entityIE University
dc.relation.schoolIE Law School
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.accessRightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subject.keywordPlatform work
dc.subject.keywordFoodora
dc.subject.keywordEmployment status
dc.subject.keywordMisclassification
dc.subject.keywordItaly
dc.subject.keywordFood-delivery platform
dc.subject.keywordOn-demand economy
dc.subject.keywordGig-economy
dc.subject.keywordComparative labour law
dc.subject.keywordLitigation
dc.title‘With Great Power Comes Virtual Freedom’. A Review of the First Italian Case Holding That (Food-Delivery) Platform Workers Are Not Employees
dc.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.version.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dspace.entity.typePublication
relation.isAuthorOfPublication5aecf3e8-490a-434c-985a-16c1835be77c
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery5aecf3e8-490a-434c-985a-16c1835be77c
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