Precarious Work - Challenges of Labour Law in Europe. Case Law: Uber

AuthorRaluca Anderco
ProfessionDoctoral School, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; Lawyer at Bucharest Bar Association, Romania
Pages212-219
Precarious Work Challenges of Labour Law in Europe.
Case Law: Uber
PhD. student Raluca ANDERCO
1
Abstract
The main purpose of this article is to analyse the issue of precarious work in
Europe, where the proliferation of the new types of employment without the whole spec-
trum of rights associated with the standard employment relationship has engendered con-
siderable labour market fragmentation and social polarization. Precarious work poses
unique challenges to the European social model of secure employment and decent social
protection. To address these challenges, we seek to analyse the reasons for the spread of
precarious work in various countries in Europe to explain the different types of precari-
ous work and to make proposals to address the phenomenon though improved labour
regulation and practice.
Keywords: precarious work, worker, Uber, atypical form, risk.
JEL Classification: K31, K33
1. Introduction
Precarity of work is one of the core concerns of contemporary labour law
research. The need to examine closely the notion of precariousness is employ-
ment relationships emerged in the context of globalization and automation that
induced a breakdown of traditional modes of working in the first decade of the
twenty first century and made increasingly commonplace the practice of using
more flexible forms of employment without the whole spectrum of rights associ-
ated with the standard employment relationship of regular, full-time work.
The need to address precarious work through labour regulation has been
given new impetus by the worldwide shift to more insecure jobs since the global
financial crisis, as well as the ride of “gig economy” which has, through digitali-
zation, transferred the risk element in the employment relation from employer to
worker. Since the 1970s, the discussion within academic and policy circles has
been largely centered on a key question: What constitutes precarious work?
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1
Raluca Anderco Doctoral School, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; Lawyer at
Bucharest Bar Association, Romania, raluca.anderco@anderco.ro.
2
Sylos Labini, P., Precarious Employment in Sicily, „International Labour Review”, 89, 1964, p.
268 et seq.; Waite, L., A Place and Space for a Critical Geography of Precarity?, „Geography
Compass”, 311, 2009, pp. 412– 433; Olsthoorn, M., Measuring Precarious Employment: A Pro-
posal for Two Indicators of Precarious Employment Based on Set-Theory and Tested with Dutch
Labor Market-Data, „Social Indicators Research”, 119, 2014, p. 421 et seq.

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