The Portuguese legislation on transport activity via electronic platform: subjects, legal status and presumptions

Abstract

The Authors analyze the challenges created by the digital revolution and the effects on the techniques for the protection of the workers, underlining the absence of a homogeneous concept of work through platforms. The comparative analysis reveals that this form of employment has been sometimes qualified as dependent, sometimes as autonomous. A regulation of the transport activity via electronic platform has been proposed in 2018 in Portugal. The authors offer a critical comment focusing on the nature of the employment relationship. According to the law n. 45/2018, the driver can be employed or carry out a self-employed activity, while the platform exercises some managerial powers, including the control of working hours. A final reflection is dedicated to the presumption of subordination set out in the same law, based on elements not fully according to the work in the digital age.

Keywords

• platform economy
• urban transport service
• legal status
• dependent work