13 proposals have been put forward by Italy and CNEL, where the final Conference of the "Don’t GIG Up!" Project was held on 21 January, in order to try and reconcile the rights and protections of workers with the needs of an increasingly competitive market. The proposals presented at Villa Lubin and contained in the final document of the project emerged after a two-year long research and analysis work that involved several European countries. “The problem of the relationship between law, collective agreement, jurisprudence and gig-economy is much more complex than what is normally represented by the media. There are platforms performing match-making functions between job supply and demand, others simply creating a digital market place. Moreover, according to some North American colleagues, there are cases of "radical markets" that work according to the typical logic of the auctions. They are heterogeneous phenomena that must be observed carefully, avoiding forms of techno-phobia and narrow minded attitudes. The law is not enough. It must be supported by sound collective bargaining in the sector. The CNEL has taken charge of the analysis of the dynamics that govern the gig-economy,  also in cooperation with other institutions, and it is committed to finding the most appropriate solutions to protect these workers, including, alongside INPS, (National Institute for Social Security)the so-called platform of the platforms, which would allow to track the work performance and, at the same time, the correct payment of the social security contribution", explains prof. Michele Faioli, CNEL Councilor.

From pizza delivery to logo creation, from a taxi ride to the repair of a tap, up to a few hours of help with children or at home: there are many sectors and occupations where the so-called gig-economy, in which the job is provided through digital platforms such as Glovo, Uber and Clickworker, is gaining a substantial foothold, often proposing an economic model where wages and working hours become a direct function of extemporaneous deliveries and "odd jobs". It is a model which satisfies the consumer, putting however a strain on the already fragmented work and social protection.

 "The problems of the gig-economy are by now universal. Therefore, a first impulse that comes from this international research is that a European agreement should be found, at least in broad terms," ​​says CNEL President Tiziano Treu. “The gig-workers, who are not just the riders, the ones we see on the street delivering pizzas or other products, are a huge and heterogeneous number of workers operating through platforms. There are at least two types of platforms: on the one hand, those in which workers have a direct relationship with the platform, which allows the performance of a service for a user or more users, also managing the methods and times of the performance and, on the other, those that offer only an intermediation between those who know how to do a certain job and those who intend to benefit from that job or that service. Therefore, we need to find different rules for different types of platforms. In the first case, workers must be guaranteed the fundamental protections already provided for in part by our law, such as protection against accidents, having a "decent" remuneration, as claimed by the International Labour Organization. In the other cases, everything is still to be defined”.

The "Don't GIG Up!" Project, co-funded by the European Commission and implemented by a network of research centres and trade unions from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden, including the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation and UIL (Italian Union of Labour, a trade union organization) for our country, first developed a comparative analysis at European level and then tried to identify some concrete proposals collected in the final document (click here to download it).

According to the Undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour, Francesca Puglisi, who spoke at the international conference “alongside the Conte II cabinet we are strongly committed to offering greater protection and safety to these workers. An important result is represented by the Decree-law n. 101 of 3 September 2019 (published in the Official Gazette of 4 September 2019, n. 207, containing "Urgent provisions for the protection of work and for the resolution of business crises" Ed., inherited from the previous government and converted, with amendments, by the 128 Law of 2 November 2019. This Decree has regulated the category of the so-called riders, a regulation that first and foremost allows to give greater safety and guarantees sickness and rest periods to all workers of digital platforms, extending the right to holidays. What we did for all those who carry out heterodirect work through digital platforms on a continuous basis was to include them in article 2 of the Job Act, so as to make them recognized as male and female employees. As for the riders, we have postponed the definition of such things as the minimum contract to the bargaining of the most representative unions. Therefore, we believe that today, thanks to this intervention, the Italian legislation on guarantees and protections for workers of digital platforms is a fairly advanced regulation”.

The role of the unions is fundamental, as emerged from the comparative research conducted in the 5 EU countries.

"Platform workers - commented the UIL Confederal Secretary, Ivana Veronese - as well as more generally the many precarious workers that exist in our labour market, national and European, must be at the centre of the work, actions as well as the proposals policies of a union that wants and knows how to place itself effectively in the contemporary world. We cannot hide behind a prejudice against technology and digitalization: we must ask for and obtain social protection, wage and social security certainty ".

Download the final document of the “Don’t GIG UP” project