The Social Protection of Workers facing the Challenge of New Remote Work, Digital Work and Robotics

Abstract

The beginning of the new century and the widespread use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence allow the incorporation of new forms of informal employment to the labour market. Digitization and digital platforms facilitate the contact between service providers and users in relationships not included in the Labour Law and Social Security regulations. Remote work is an atypical mode of service provision regulated in art. 13 ET. This article was modified in the reform of 2012 without contemplating a specific Social Security regime in terms of professional contingencies and benefits demanded by its peculiarities regarding time and place of work. It is an insufficient regulation that does not cover the social protection of workers in the so-called collaborative economy. The problem is aggravated when workers are replaced by robots and companies do not contribute to the social security system of the welfare state. In our study we defend the need to adapt our social protection system to the new realities of labour in accordance with the principles of decent work and the promotion of fundamental labour principles and rights sustained by the ILO.