DigitalWORK

• Funding body: Generación de conocimiento 2023 - MCIU /AEI
• Reference: PID2023-146944NB-I00
• Period: September 2024 – August 2027
• Principal investigator and coordinator: Anna Ginès i Fabrellas & Raquel Serrano Olivares

The digitalization of work is transforming jobs, and their quality is being threatened, especially with the appearance of new forms of work. Although the digitalization of work offers business opportunities and enables greater flexibility for companies, it can also lead to greater precariousness by allowing greater discontinuity of work, uncertainty of working conditions, unpaid work, work-life imbalance, extension of work surveillance through tracking technologies, overlapping forms of discrimination and loss of bargaining power. Moreover, digitalization potentially hinders the collective dimension of labor relations, favoring more social and professional isolated work environments.

One of the challenges of the governance of digitalization is to ensure a fair, equitable and transparent work environment. This implies workers’ rights to work in an environment that respects their fundamental rights, health and safety, right to a fair wage for a decent standard of living, to predictable and transparent working conditions, to work-family balance, as well as the right to participation through their representatives.

Nevertheless, the existing regulatory framework is fragmented and limited, given its initial focus on data protection rights and the lack of specific labor regulation. Despite the legislative efforts, the digital transformation of the workplace poses important challenges in terms of quality of work that must be addressed from a holistic perspective to guarantee a fair, equitable and transparent work environment.

The project DigitalWORK aims at addressing the lack of comprehensive treatment in the regulation and scientific literature of the issue. The project will allow the generation and advancement of knowledge and the identification of solutions for one of the most important challenges of our society, which is the digital transformation of work. This topic is of great importance given the capacity for growth in the coming years of technological developments and its disruptive impact on work. The overall purpose is to transfer this knowledge to stakeholders and society at large, by formulating legal proposals and practical guidelines to guarantee that the digital transformation of work is promoting fair, equitable and transparent work.