Why the collaborative economy and its platforms require flexible legal framework

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Phenomena such as the collaborative economy, where digital platforms relate workers with end users or advanced technologies such as "blockchain", will mark the future of labor relations.

This is one of the conclusions of the work they have done within the Technos Project by the Cuatrecasas Institute of Legal Strategy in Human Resources, analyzing the impact of these innovations, collaborative economy and blockchain within the framework of labor law.

This is the fifth report framed in the Technos Project, directed by the Institute, which analyzes in detail the impact of the platform economy and the adoption of management systems supported by Blockchain's technology in the management of resources. human rights and in the regulatory framework of labor relations.

In addition to an exhaustive analysis of both technologies, some of the most relevant implications that 3D printing and virtual and augmented reality can offer to this regulatory framework are summarized in a more summarized way.

The objective of the Technos Project, which has been managed by the Cuatrecasas Institute since 2016, is to analyze the impact of new technologies on the corporate and organizational structure of work, as well as to study the consequences for employment and the management of human resources.

Within the framework of this Project, four reports on Social Networks, Internet of Things, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence have already been published. The Technos Project includes ABB, Acciona, Adecco, Airbus, ArcelorMittal, Cepsa, Endesa, IBM, Mercadona, Nestlé, Ormazabal, Sacyr, Tecnalia, Telefónica and UNIR (International University of La Rioja).

Salvador del Rey, president of the Cuatrecasas Institute, made the synthesis of the conclusions gathered at HR headquarters in Madrid for experts in HR and people management.

He recalled that "the economy of platforms is the result of a technological environment in which the availability and generalization of a set of interacting technologies gives rise and opens the possibility of generating new types of business that upset the classical conception of work".

He also pointed out that it was not yet clear that a special employment relationship should be created for these professionals working on platforms.

"The last relationship of this type allowed by the Government was that of the lawyer, then the rest have not come together."

For Del Rey, the figure of the "trade" - the economically dependent  and self-employed - is justified: "Maybe the time has come to make some reform."

From this working group led by Salvador del Rey the legislator is asked to make an exercise of urgency when legally regulating the phenomenon of the collaborative economy - "but it cannot be done in a rigid and uniform way."

And he recalled that the EU itself in 2016 already spoke of different models of labor relations in this collaborative environment.

In the opinion of this expert, "such regulation is necessary, should be done with flexibility because there are models of platforms where there is employment and others where work is autonomous," he said. For him, it is important to erase the idea that "the self-employed is a precarious worker in our country".

In this last report it is indicated that the most defining characteristic of work in digital platforms is the generation of a new form of work organization.

The work in digital platforms implies a new form of work organization, as well as a distribution, we could say "discontinuous" of the work force.

Discontinued in terms of the market of work platforms, the actors provide their supply and demand based on very heterogeneous variables: time, location, training, responsibilities, motivations...

As a result, the platform economy offers extraordinary flexibility for different service providers as well as for clients or users of platform services.

"Blockchain" and management of people increasingly united

Regarding the "blockchain" technology, Del Rey said that "based on what many experts predict about this technology, it will radically change the way we handle business and the way we work together."

In his opinion, the use of technology in the field of people to define their professional career or design any educational development is more than justified.

On this day Mariano Silveyra, president of Cabify Europe, who emphasized in his speech "the new business models based on platforms, the main objective they pursue is to achieve maximum optimization of resources and that these can be available to all in a way fast, safe and economical. Just to give an example among many others, if we compare the utilization rate of a particular vehicle, it does not exceed 3% of the time."

Silveyra commented that "for years, more efficient models of transport like the taxi have managed to raise these rates to around 50".

"Thanks to technology and platforms such as Cabify, currently the vehicle utilization rate is above 70%, contributing univocally to improving traffic in cities (many more people with fewer cars can be moved) and improving the environment by doing a lot less empty kilometers."

For its part, Coty de Monteverde, Blockchain Center of Excellence Director at Santander Digital, who made special emphasis on "blockchain technology provides a new way to register the ownership of assets and operate with them safely."

"In real time and without the need for a relationship of trust between the participants. It could allow the creation of businesses and services that are currently not possible with the current means."

After these interventions, Salvador del Rey and Guillermo Tena, president and director of the Cuatrecasas Institute respectively, discussed the impact of the platform and Blockchain economy on the labor regulatory framework and on people management.

They stated that "all the actors in the platform economy demand and offer work, some adapting it to their productive regime and others to their lifestyle and interests, but they do so following dynamics radically different from the conventional ones".

In reference to the "blockchain" technology, Guillermo Tena affirms that "if Human Resources management has a central element, it is the trust it is capable of generating".

"Blockchain, due to its internal security, confidentiality, incorruptibility, traceability and distribution of the information it manages, can make a huge contribution to the growth of trust within an organization, especially with regard to the incorporation of new technologies in the company," he concludes.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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