Riders are not employees, but they enjoy the same protections

Abstract

The coming of the platform economy forces the doctrine to propose theoretical constructions and interpretative solutions that avoid the looming danger of displacement of labour law protections. Today, the digital technologies applied to the organization of delivery services allow companies to be able to benefit from a "crowd" of workers willing to accept job opportunities without being obliged to do so. The absence of an obligation to perform the service is likely to determine the slippage of the bike-riders in the area, almost without protection, of coordinated and continuous self-employment. The last ruling on the subject (Court of Appeal of Turin, 4th February 2019), marked a change with respect to the previous judgments, bringing the work of digital riders in the context of heterorganized collaborations. At the center of the Turin judges' motivation is the art. 2, paragraph 1, of the d. lgs. n. 81 of 2015, a rule that, after being downgraded to the status of "apparent norm" by the court of first instance, is re-evaluated by the Court of Appeal until it becomes the door of access for the legal protections of the riders . The latter are denied the qualification of employees: nevertheless, if their tasks are organized by the entrepreneur, the discipline of employees be applied, despite the fact that the relationships remain "technically" self-employment. The qualification of the work of the riders as heterorganized collaborations also leaves open the possibility of stipulating trade union agreements which, in consideration of the productive peculiarities of the sector, possibly provide for modulations, adaptations or exceptions to the discipline applicable to digital riders.

Keywords

• digital platforms
• riders
• case-law
• legal status