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Working in Digital and Smart Organizations pp 67–92Cite as

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A Fair Wage for Workers On-demand via App

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Abstract

Work-on-demand via Application encompasses the outsourcing of very traditional jobs, such as driving or cleaning, to workers engaged by digital platforms as independent contractors. According to recent studies and empirical findings, these workers, often deprived of any basic employment and social protections, face high economic uncertainty. Granting them the application of the minimum wage could be a way to alleviate it and provide a fairer distribution of the profits generated by the digital platforms. The author investigates possible solutions to achieve this target. After ruling out that workers on-demand via app can be normally classified as “employees” and that their inclusion into existing or brand-new intermediate categories can lead to satisfactory outcomes, he moved to a de iure condendo perspective. He argues that the best solution should consider workers on-demand via application to be part of the category of self-employed performing personal work. He proposes a new redistribution of employment protections towards all personal work relations, aimed at reworking the rigidity of the dichotomy of employment (full rights)/self-employment (no rights), based on a purposive approach. The article concludes by considering the issues that the proposal at stake will face in light of competition law and free movement of services with the EU single market.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It has been estimated by Hagiu and Wright (2015) that an independent contractor is about 25/30% cheaper than an employee if the costs related to employment protections and social security rights are taken into consideration.

  2. 2.

    See, for example, Corte di Cassazione 20 Feb. 1995, no. 1827, Il Foro Italiano, 1995, I, p. 1152 and the recent Corte di Cassazione 22 Jan. 2015 no. 1178, Rivista Italiana di Diritto del Lavoro, 2015, II, p. 684.

  3. 3.

    See Corte di Cassazione 13 May 2004, no. 9151, Il Lavoro nella Giurisprudenza, 2004, p. 1163; Corte Costituzionale 5 Feb. 1996, no. 30, available at https://www.cortecostituzionale.it/actionGiurisprudenza.do.

  4. 4.

    See Corte di Cassazione 4 Feb. 1986, no. 708, Lavoro e Previdenza Oggi, 1986, p. 1122.

  5. 5.

    Dependency from the employer’s business has been identified as a reliable indicator of subordination by a famous Italian Constitutional Court sentence—5 Feb. 1996, no. 30, Giustizia Civile, 1996, I, p. 915—referring to a condition of “double alienations” of the employee: “alienation (in the sense of exclusive destination for the benefit of others) from the result of the work activity, and alienation from the productive organisation of which the work performance is part”. However, this approach has been rarely followed by subsequent case law.

  6. 6.

    Ready Mixed Concrete (South East) Ltd v Minister of Pensions and National Insurance [1968] 2 QB 497.

  7. 7.

    Stevenson, Jordan and Harrison Ltd v Macdonald and Evans [1952] 1 TLR 101.

  8. 8.

    Market Investigations Ltd v Minister for Social Security [1969] 2 QB 173

  9. 9.

    Carmichael and Leese v National Power plc (1999) UKHL 47.

  10. 10.

    Montgomery v Johnson Underwood Ltd [2001] IRLR 269; Mingeley v Pinnock [2004] IRLR 373.

  11. 11.

    More precisely (DOL 2015), the test is based on six factors: (a) the extent to which the work performed is an integral part of the employer’s business , (b) the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss depending on his or her managerial skill, (c) the extent of the relative investments of the employer and the worker, (d) whether the work performed requires special skills and initiative, (e) the permanency of the relationship, and (f) the degree of control exercised or retained by the employer.

  12. 12.

    United States District Court Northern District of California Case No. C-13-3826 EMC, O’Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. et al., available at http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/home.

  13. 13.

    United States District Court Northern District of California, Case No. 13-cv-04065-VC, Cotter et al. v. Lyft Inc., available at http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/home.

  14. 14.

    Interestingly, a rather similar argument was proposed by an Italian Court—in particular by Pretore di Milano, 20 June 1986, Rivista Italiana di Diritto del Lavoro, 1987, II, p. 76—at the end of the ’80s to recognise the subordination of so-called Pony Express. However, the argument was rejected by the subsequent judgement of appeal (Trib. Milano 10 Oct. 1987, Foro Italiano, 1989, I, p. 2632), and then by the Supreme Court (Cass. 10 July 1991, no. 7608, Rivista Italiana di Diritto del Lavoro, 1992, II, p. 370).

  15. 15.

    Aslam and Farrar vs. Uber B.V, Uber London Ltd. and Uber Brittania Ltd, Case No. 2202550/2015, available at https://www.judiciary.gov.uk. For a comment of the sentence and its implication, see Freedland and Countouris 2017.

  16. 16.

    Employment Appeals Tribunal, Appeal No. UKEAT/0056/17/DA, available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a046b06e5274a0ee5a1f171/Uber_B.V._and_Others_v_Mr_Y_Aslam_and_Others_UKEAT_0056_17_DA.pdf (accessed on 4 Dec. 2017).

  17. 17.

    Criticisms against intermediate category based on the Italian and Spanish experience have been put forward by many scholars: Garofalo M.G. 2003; Freedland 2007; J. Cruz Villalon 2013.

  18. 18.

    Recently relaunched by Davidov (2017), also with regard to Uber drivers.

  19. 19.

    Columbia River Packers Assn., Inc. v. Hinton, 315 U.S. 143 (1942), accessible at https://supreme.justia.com.

  20. 20.

    See the leading case C-67/96 Albany International BV v Stichting Bedrijfspensioenfonds Textielindustrie, ECLI:EU:C:1999:430, available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  21. 21.

    Case C-413/13, FNV Kunsten Informatie en Media v Staat der Nederlanden, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2411, available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  22. 22.

    More in detail, they are undertakings because (a) they offer their services for remuneration on a given market and (b) they perform their activities as independent economic operators in relation to their principal.

  23. 23.

    The ECJ in FNV Kunsten Informatie en Media (quoted above at 23) refers expressly to a person who “acts under the direction of his employer as regards, in particular, his freedom to choose the time, place and content of his work, does not share in the employer’s commercial risks, and, for the duration of that relationship, forms an integral part of that employer’s undertaking , so forming an economic unit with that undertaking ”.

  24. 24.

    Case C-35/99 Criminal proceedings against Manuele Arduino, third parties: Diego Dessi, Giovanni Bertolotto and Compagnia Assicuratrice RAS SpA., ECLI:EU:C:2002:97; C-250/03 G.E. Mauri v Ministero della Giustizia and Commissione per gli esami di avvocato presso la Corte d’appello di Milano, ECLI:EU:C:2005:96 both available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  25. 25.

    Case 267/86, Pascal Van Eycke v ASPA NV, ECLI:EU:C:1988:427; Case C-185/91 Bundesanstalt für den Güterfernverkehr v Gebrüder Reiff GmbH & Co. KG., ECLI:EU:C:1993:886; C-96/94, Centro Servizi Spediporto Srl v Spedizioni Marittima del Golfo Srl, ECLI:EU:C:1995:308, available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  26. 26.

    C-17/00, François De Coster v Collège des bourgmestre et échevins de Watermael-Boitsfort, ECLI:EU:C:2001:651; Joined cases C-544/03 and C-545/03, Mobistar SA v Commune de Fléron and Belgacom Mobile SA v Commune de Schaerbeek, ECLI:EU:C:2005:518, available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  27. 27.

    Joined cases C-94/04 and C-202/04, Federico Cipolla v Rosaria Fazari, née Portolese and Stefano Macrino and Claudia Capoparte v Roberto Meloni, ECLI:EU:C:2006:758, available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  28. 28.

    Case C-55/94, Reinhard Gebhard v Consiglio dell’Ordine degli Avvocati e Procuratori di Milano, ECLI:EU:C:1995:411, available at https://curia.europa.eu.

  29. 29.

    Case C-115/14, RegioPost GmbH & Co. KG v Stadt Landau in der Pfalz, ECLI:EU:C:2015:760.

  30. 30.

    For example, the Italian legislator has just passed the “self-employment statute” (legge no. 81/2017), recognising some rights, such as maternity and parental leave, a sort of sick leave and tax credit for vocational training.

  31. 31.

    A report of the ILO (ILO 2002) stressed that many ILO standards refer to “worker” and not just to “employee”; following report (ILO 2003) added that many work arrangements fall outside the employment relationship and therefore the full range of employment and social security protections is enjoyed by only a minority of the global workforce.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Emanuele Menegatti

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  1. Emanuele Menegatti
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Correspondence to Emanuele Menegatti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Law, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy

    Edoardo Ales

  2. Department of Economics Marco Biagi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Ylenia Curzi

  3. University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Tommaso Fabbri

  4. Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Olga Rymkevich

  5. Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Iacopo Senatori

  6. Department of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Giovanni Solinas

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Menegatti, E. (2018). A Fair Wage for Workers On-demand via App. In: Ales, E., Curzi, Y., Fabbri, T., Rymkevich, O., Senatori, I., Solinas, G. (eds) Working in Digital and Smart Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77329-2_5

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