Defining and protecting autonomous work : a multidisciplinary approach

Defining and protecting autonomous work : a multidisciplinary approach / edited by Tindara Addabbo [and five others].

This book, adopting a multidisciplinary approach, investigates the definition of autonomous work and the kind of protection it receives and should receive in a global perspective. The book advocates for the existence of genuine autonomous work to be distinguished from employment and false self-emplo...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Addabbo, Tindara (Editor)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
Subjects:
Labor laws and legislation.
Autonomy.
Autonomy
Labor laws and legislation
Online Access:Click for online access
Table of Contents:
  • Proposed Contents 1 Tindara Addabbo, Olga Rymkevich
  • Introduction The Introduction illustrates the basic idea of the book providing a methodological approach to the research that the book aims to present and the rationale for the choice of this topic. Moreover, it explains the continuity with the previous books with Palgrave MacMillan such as 'Working in Digital and Smart Organizations', 'Performance Appraisal in Modern Employment Relations' and 'The Collective Dimensions of Employment Relations'. The chapter then briefly summarizes the contents of the chapters included in the two proposed sections. Section 1: The evolving notion of autonomy and its consequences on social protection: A Theoretical Frame. The aim of this section is to provide a general contextualization of the book by offering a critical interdisciplinary assessment of the evolving notion and theoretical concepts of autonomous work as well as processes accompanying the increasing 'autonomisation' of employment which seriously challenge the traditional dichotomy of autonomy and subordination and put in doubt the adequacy of the existing legal categories and regulatory mechanisms at national and international level. The chapters offer a contribution to the ongoing scientific debate regarding the complex dilemma between the possible revision of the traditional interpretative and normative toolkit regulating the relationship between employers/platforms and workers and an application of selective and tailored set of protections adapted to the specific categories of workers. 1. Ylenia Curzi, Tommaso Fabbri
  • Autonomy in and beyond the Employment Relationship: an Organizational Perspective This chapter focuses on the interpretative issues that digitalization and its implications on autonomy at work pose to both organizational and labour law scholars. Firstly, considering the current debate in organizational literature, the authors argue that much of the organizational scholars' inability to clarify whether digitalization leads to increasing subordination and standardization of work or, conversely, if it enhances workers' autonomy heavily depends on the use of an unclear definition of autonomy and the lack of empirical studies that analytically identify the aspects of work over which workers can exercise their autonomy. Then, the chapter turns attention to the Labour Law debate and critical reflection on the autonomy-subordination conceptual distinction which is today increasingly challenged by two empirical opposite trends associated with the digitalization of work: On the one hand, the rapidly increasing number of European employees who can decide where, when and how to perform their work, thus appearing less and less subject to strict hetero-direction, and on the other hand, an equally increasing number of (at least formally) self-employed workers operating through digital platforms whose operational logic is a black-box that they cannot completely know, influence or access. Against this background, the chapter introduces concepts and analytical distinctions drawn from some organizational theories reflecting a processual perspective on organization and highlights how such a conceptual framework may boost an interdisciplinary reflection and inform the empirical analysis aimed at addressing the complex issue of autonomy in and beyond the employment relationship. 2. Manos Matzaganis
  • False starts, wrong turns, and dead ends: How (not) to ensure social protection for all workers. This chapter investigates the challenges for social policy that recent trends pose despite the fact that the relative weight of self-employment has actually declined over time in more countries than it has increased. On the one hand, the emergence of platform ('gig') work causes dependent self-employment to spread more widely than it did before. On the other hand, the decline of earnings from traditional forms of self-employment (artisans, small traders), and by younger entrants to the professions (lawyers, engineers), has given rise to income poverty
  • which, even when bolstered by the availability of wealth assets, remains a shocking experience for middle-class families. In view of all that, the European Pillar of Social Rights has called for the right to adequate social protection to be extended to all workers, and, under comparable conditions, the self-employed, regardless of the type and duration of their employment relationship. The goal is commendable. The means for achieving it are less clear. This chapter critically reviews some of the approaches recently taken in Europe and beyond, it then cautions against some of the policy solutions advocated, before finally tracing a possible way forward. 3. Adalberto Perulli
  • Beyond Subordination: Expanding the Scope of Labour Law This chapter provides critical reflection upon the evolution of the autonomous work and increasing need to extend the protections to all working individuals including self-employed. The author proposes an analysis basing on four arguments: social, historical, economic and comparative. While underlining the artificial nature of the traditional distinction between autonomous and subordinate work, he argues the need to search for other innovative solutions like selective application of certain kinds of protections. The chapter analyses in a comparative perspective the techniques adopted in different European countries supporting the view that self-employment or dependent self-employment is not an alternative to subordination but just another way of working for others which merits all necessary protections and guarantees and as well as full recognition of the whole range of fundamental human rights including rights for collective bargaining and collective representation. In this regard the restrictions posed by competition law must be revisited and reassessed. 4. Daria Sarti, Teresina Torre- Employee and Self-Employed in Working Life: Is it there a Real Difference? This chapter aims at analyzing the reshaping of the traditional difference existing between 'salaried employees' and 'self-employed workers' as some of the deep changes that have been observed in the working world in the recent decades, which seems to be one among those that are studied very little. According to the classic literature, these typologies represent two completely separate situations, having a strong and relevant reference in the legal dimension. It has been ascertained a rapid and steady increase in the number of self-employed individuals. This chapter is aimed to deepen these two different working status entering into some crucial dimensions, to understand if and where they are conditioning working practices and if it is possible to confirm or not the existence of a gap between the two
  • apparently?
  • different 'worlds'. In order to examine this topic, the authors use an international large dataset (the sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) conducted in 2015 on a large sample of workers from the EU35 and which is the most recent at disposal, which offer the opportunity to compare the effective situation in many European countries, so enabling a contribution to understand if this way to classify working status continues to be useful or not to capture the evolution of work. In the end of paper, the authors propose stimulus for further research in this direction. 5. Edoardo Ales
  • Autonomous and Autonomized Work Relationships: an Interdisciplinary Perspective on Social Protection This chapter aims at providing a conceptual framework to social protection of autonomous work in the light of the analysis of emerging social needs that the welfare state have to cope with in forms and with tools that may differ from the traditional one adopted in case of subordinate work. The chapter criticized the 'package approach' of some legislators that just extends Labour Law and Social Security protection typical of subordination to self-employed without previously analyzing the kind of needs that are actually facing. The chapter focuses also on the question whether 'autonomized' subordination may need a different regulative and protective status because of the absence of some organizational constraints attached to full subordination. Section 2 At the boundaries of Labour Law: Discovering new regulatory horizons of autonomous work.
  • The aim of this section is to provide a critical overview of the legal status and working conditions of self-employed workers including new categories of gig workers and traditional categories of liberal professionals. Particular attention is paid to the existing mismatch between the scope of protective regulations and the established criteria for the classification of workers which are apparently unable to guarantee the respect of fundamental rights to the working individuals and combat the abusive and exploitative practices. In this regard crucial role may be played by social partners as collective representation represents one of the most powerful tools to ensure the respect of basic labour rights for the autonomous workers. Considering particular characteristics of this category of workers the papers address innovative strategies adopted by trade unions to better meet the needs of these workers trying to get better advantage from the technological achievements. Finally, the attention is reserved to the barriers that competition and anti-trust law create with respect to the exercise by the autonomous workers of the fundamental rights for collective bargaining and collective representation. 6. Stefano Bini
  • Blockchain: between Autonomization and Automatization. New Challenges for Labour Law This chapter provides a critical reflection on the fact that Labour Law is called to rethink, in the light of autonomization in employment and automatization in decisions, some of its landmarks and, probably, the same perimeter of its borders, more and more porous. Taking the cue from the analysis of ......

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