DIGITAL PLATFORMS AND LABOR REGULATION: PRICING AND WORKER CONTROL IN THIS NEW BUSINESS MODEL

Abstract

This work discusses the labor regulation in digital platforms, as of recovering the idea of expressing economic dependence through the pricing performed in such business model. The starting point was reflecting on concept of the historical and cultural natures of technology and contemporary questions regarding the algorithms and mass production of data. Further on, the characteristics and typologies of digital labor platforms were investigated as a new and rising technologic model of work organization, emphasizing the contrast between this activity’s economic efficiency and the precariousness of the actual working conditions of those individuals/subjects classified as partners and self-employed. Then, it was demonstrated that Labor Law regulation is applicable to those digital platforms categorized as controlling/leading, specifically by reconsidering the criterion of economic dependence as the method of pricing, including the existing criticism on said concept and its use applied in judicial decisions. Throughout the text, the examples used are based on the company Uber, as case studies. Using the dialectical method and a multidisciplinary, socio-juridic and critical approach, there were conducted bibliographic and documental research techniques. By way of conclusion, a critical reflection on the semantical questions and their ideological uses is presented, indicating an urgent need to regulate work in digital platforms.