Those excluded from the dignity decree are the riders, after the meeting between the representatives of the workers, of the digital platforms, of the CGIL, CISL and UIL trade unions and of the companies held on Monday XNUMX July at the Ministry of Labour. According to Luigi Di Maio, the only way to proceed is consultation: "The will to work for a national collective agreement emerged from this table".
But in a country where politics has changed, where society is liquid and where it is difficult to find oneself in the categories one has always been accustomed to knowing, it is conceivable to be able to manage collective interests, school and work as one is always done or is it necessary to approach the changes with a new method?
ORIENTA SpA, one of the main Italian employment agencies active since 1998, in this context has tried to put forward a proposal for the discussion table between riders and Food Delivery companies wanted by Minister Di Maio, for which the minimum objectives are " a minimum hourly wage, satisfactory Inail and Inps coverage, not being dependent on a reputational algorithm and a contract that provides clear details of the contractual relationship".
According to the data of the Rodolfo Debenedetti Foundation the workers of the Gig Economy – the economic model that has said goodbye to the permanent job and which is activated when a service is requested – there are about a million and among these, 10% is represented by riders. Of these, 70% are casual workers: 50% cover their shifts from one to four hours a week, while the remaining 20% do it for 5-9 hours. Average age of workers? Very young, 78% are under 30 years old.
The contractual solution proposed by Orienta is the administration contract, a subordinate type contract whose main objective is to protect workers while leaving the principle of flexibility that characterizes the service unchanged. In fact, with Legislative Decree 276/2003 this type of contract was introduced which allows a subject to turn to another to use the work of personnel not directly hired, but employed by the supplier and for which two different contracts are envisaged, one between the user and the provider and one between the provider and the worker.
"The supply contract allows a worker to have all the protections of subordinate work even for short and discontinuous working periods and companies that use this type of contract to be able to activate an employment relationship in a flexible way and without any bureaucratic burden" he explains Giuseppe Biazzo, AD Orienta Spa, one of the main Italian employment agencies.
This contract provides for the possibility of being activated even for a single day (guaranteeing the maximum level of flexibility) and at the same time contains all the protections and guarantees typical of dependent work (maximum level of guaranteed protection): guaranteed minimum wage, holidays, Tfr, INPS contributions, Inail, contributions for unemployment, health, contained in that Value that some of the food delivery companies have signed off on, that is Foodora, Foodracers, Moovenda and Prestofood. Furthermore, the supply contract provides for additional protections to the classic ones of dependent work guaranteed by the bilateral system of the sector, such as: training, access to credit, supplementary forms of income support, for maternity, for nursery school, for non self-sufficiency, for mobility.
“There are many economic sectors such as cleaning, catering, personal services and so on where there are needs similar to those of Food Delivery and in general to those of the Gig Economy which resort to administration to manage flexibility. Of course, there will probably be a need for legislative intervention to make administration more compliant with the Gig Economy, but this is the best tool we have on the table to reconcile flexibility and protection”, concludes Biazzo.
What contract is foreseen for the riders? Generally, the workers are classified with various self-employment formulas, where 10% is included in the co.co.co. package, 50% in the occasional collaboration contract with withholding tax, 50% paid on delivery and the 20% paid by the hour. From a legal point of view, the game is still open and confirms the need to connote the figure of the rider: a labor judge in Milan, Giulia Dossi, rejected the appeal of the former rider Mohamed Elazab who asked to be recognized as a "subordinate worker indefinitely” by Foodinho, owned by the Spanish 'Glovo', specialized in home deliveries. Not being able to claim a position as an employee, the company was not required to recognize the permanent employment relationship.
The negotiation has been postponed and a new meeting is scheduled for the week. Luigi Di Maio made it known that "the privileged way to achieve this result is that of concertation and, if necessary, 'legislative support' could possibly be included in the Dignity decree", approved by the Council of Ministers, before the conversion into law.
