8 Conclusions
Digitalisation blurred the labour market dualisation between standard and precarious workers (Schwander, 2018), whereas labour protection and employment regulation are not assumed by default (De Stefano, 2016). Their core claims of a regular contract and specific regulation need to be addressed. If they keep on being disregarded in the legislation discussion, companies will keep on circumventing the majority of labour laws passed in general, perpetuating situations of (bogus) self-employment and informality (Moore & Newsome, 2018). These workers need to be given visibility. All of these situations are reflected in the discrediting of unions, the lack of collective bargaining due to lack of representation in the sector, weak social dialogue, and little synergy between unions. Governments and unions need to approach these workers and recognise their labour specificities, not only drivers and couriers, ensuring that their rights to social dialogue and collective bargaining are enshrined in the European legislation. The findings of this article also aim to contribute to the emerging debate on precarious labour relations in the gig economy, and decent work regarding digital platform workers in a scenario of racial platform capitalism.
References
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