Subordination is dead! Long live subordination!

Abstract

Is the concept of “subordination” still valid and applicable to define the employment relationship in digital and platform firms? According to the Author the answer to this question must be positive: the subordination survives and it is alive even if the organizational constraints able to generate it are changed and they cannot any more be identified necessarily with employer powers of unilateral direction on time, space and executive ways to carry out employee individual work activity. Nevertheless employee contractual obligations need to be adapted to the new organization of the firm, that allows an extensive autonomy of the worker, on one hand, but on the other it requires a higher rate of contractual liability concerning the individual performance.

Keywords

• subordination
• self-employment
• gig economy
• autonomy
• liability