Thread by @_aloisi

“Demystifying Flexibility, Exposing the Algorithmic Boss: A Note on the First Italian Case Classifying a (Food-Delivery) #Platform Worker as an Employee”. New short WP on the misclassification case of a Glovo rider. Link: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3… — forthcoming in the @CLLPJ
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In Nov 2020, the Palermo Tribunal reinstated a #rider and reclassified him as a full-time, permanent employee, to be remunerated according to the applicable collective bargaining agreement (for the service sector), on the grounds that his autonomy was merely notional
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The platform could indeed organize the execution of work and discipline noncompliance with instructions issued through the internal system. The judge ordered compensation for wage differentials and reimbursement for the unpaid time the worker spent waiting for orders.
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This case is groundbreaking for two main reasons. First, it results in direct, full recognition of the existence of an #employmentrelationship, proving that current legal categories and concepts have not been superseded by allegedly modern business models.
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Second, this case reinforces a trend towards the #Europeanization of social issues (in a network of inspirations), particularly as regards jurisprudential methods for determining who is an employee and, more broadly, as regards the uniform application of EU policy.
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The Dispatch covers four main aspects: 1. the legal nature of the service rendered by the platform, 2. the techniques for classifying working relationships, 3. the emergence of an adaptable notion of subordination, & 4. the pervasive role played by #managementbyalgorithms.
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