Ricerc@Sapienza

The recent spread of working models far removed from the type of employee in the Fordist factory, questions the jurists on the topicality and effectiveness of the protections guaranteed by the complex of labour law regulations and, in particular, by the Workers' Statute, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020. These assessments must be conducted in the light of the profound changes in the economic and social context brought about by the expansion of the web economy and the platform economy. The differentiation of work models generates a fracture in the constitutional order, due to the legislator's difficulty in implementing the protective programme of article 35 of the Constitution, in correspondence with the points of greatest friction between the subjective scope of the Statute, designed for subordinate workers, and the vast area occupied by the weak workers deserving new protections, in particular those operating in the platform economy. The project aims to verify, through comparative analysis and with attention to transnational economic contexts, the adaptability and the persistent usefulness of the protection model prefigured by the Italian Workers' Statute. The analysis will focus in particular on the rights enshrined in Title I of Law 300 of 1970, which guarantee the free expression of the person in the work context and which, for this reason, have the highest degree of adaptability. However, the collective safeguards guaranteed by law cannot be overlooked, also in view of a rethinking of the participation model in business contexts characterised by a high rate of dematerialisation. Finally, the project will not neglect the comparison with other legal systems and the analysis of European Union law.