Work based on digital platforms

The new law, prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, establishes minimum levels of protection for workers who carry out tasks through digital platforms that facilitate goods delivery services or urban and expensive passenger transportation, ensuring fair, decent and safe working conditions, regardless of the relationship that these workers have with the companies that own the platforms.

In this sense, it provides common provisions for dependent workers and the self-employed, and then establishes particular regulations for both forms of work.

Common rules for dependent and self-employed work

Certain rules are established that must be complied with by the platforms, regardless of the legal nature of the relation:

i. Transparency of algorithms and monitoring systems, and the principles of equality, non-discrimination and information must be respected.

ii. Access to certain information and the right to explanation, with companies having to provide information when it is required by workers linked to the decision made or supported by automated decision systems.

iii Digital reputation and data: right to the intangibility of the digital reputation of workers, in order to protect the dignity and honor of the worker.

iv Terms and conditions of the contract: they must be transparent, concise and easily accessible to the worker, prohibiting, for example, abusive clauses.

v. Competence and jurisdiction: the courts of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay will have jurisdiction in any dispute between workers and platforms, as long as the worker is the claimant and is domiciled in Uruguay.

vi. The tools may be provided totally or partially by the digital platform, especially in cases of independent links.

vii. Companies must train workers on traffic, health and hygiene regulations regarding the activity to be carried out.

Conditions for dependent work

With respect to dependent relationships, therefore included within the framework of labor law, certain particular conditions are established: a) it is established that working time is all the time that the worker is at the company’s disposal, starting from logging in, therefore considering access to the platform through the personal code of each worker; b) it is allowed that the worker’s remuneration can be set by work time, production or piecework; c) only discounts enabled by Law No. 17,829 are allowed.

Conditions for self-employed or independent work

It is expressly established that self-employed platform workers: a) are included in Law No. 16,074, therefore, they will have coverage against work accidents or professional illnesses, even if they are not considered dependent workers; b) they may choose between being governed by the monotax modality or other legal forms to tax their services that exist in current regulations; c) They will have the right to freedom of association as well as to bargain collectively.

Final provisions

The MTSS will be competent to verify and control compliance with the law, which must be regulated by the Executive Branch within a period of 120 days from its promulgation. The law will go into effect 90 days after its promulgation.

Assessment

The assessment of the norm starts from questioning both the proposals that seek to make the link labor-intensive, as well as those that seek to make all workers self-employed. Both share the same weakness: they restrict a controversial work modality that varies enormously depending on the contractual conditions and execution of each relationship.

Our legislation focuses on dependent work, both the Constitution (for example, arts. 7, 33, 36, 53 and 54), and ILO standards (for example, ILC No. 87), protect all types of work.

For this reason, we consider it appropriate that the new norm recognizes the plurality of social modalities of work with the consequent diversity of treatment that these modalities require, to the detriment of the search for a common and unique labor law for all types of work activity. Current labor relations show that there are three clearly differentiated types of workers: dependent, independent and subordinate (those who, being self-employed, are economically dependent).

For labor law, the legal key will be to qualify them (especially considering the principle of primacy of reality and the intention of the parties involved) and advance on the basis of a legislative system that integrates all these workers, differentiating their rights and obligations, with specific statutes that, although they may coincide in certain aspects, must be substantially independent.

Reality is what should rule. A reality that must be based on the autonomy of the will of the parties, who must be able to choose the respective modality. With the guarantee that in cases where it is understood that the forms do not reflect the truth of things, any party may take action before the courts requesting the lifting of the veil and the application of the corresponding regulations. Just as it has been happening, with contradictory rulings on the subject.