Collective Rights for Platform Workers. The Role Played by the Italian Workers’ Statute in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The interposition of a digital platform between consumers and workers providing services, even of a very traditional nature, has led to the creation of a (relatively) new business model, where there is an attempt to deny providers access to rights and protections typical of labour law; among these, collective rights. My intervention aims to offer a comparison between the Italian legal system, on one hand, and the American and British ones on the other, demonstrating how the former, unlike the latter, thanks to the support provided by the workers’ statute to freedom and union activity in workplaces, has managed to provide the necessary tools to effectively address the aforementioned challenges.

Keywords

• platform work
• union rights
• unfair labour practices
• collective bargaining
• right to strike