10.6092/issn.1561-8048/14057
application/pdf
1561-8048
14057
2
en
Edoardo Ales
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Editorial
Text.Serial.Journal
https://illej.unibo.it/
14
Editorial
2021-12-22
2021-12-16
2021-12-22
2021-12-22
I
ILLeJ
Edoardo Ales
2021/12/22
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/14057
I
University of Naples “Parthenope”
1561-8048
2
en
I
Editorial
https://illej.unibo.it/article/download/14057/13692
14
Editorial                                                                            Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Edoardo Ales                                                                                Issue 2, Vol. 14 (2021)
Iacopo Senatori                                                                                   ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                   https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/14057




                                                Editorial
                                             Edoardo Ales*
                                            Iacopo Senatori†


    The thematic session of this issue of the Italian Labour Law e-Journal is dedicated to the
 protection of self-employed workers. This topic is receiving a growing attention by labour
 law scholars and policy makers and is fueling a lively debate at the international level. The
 issues on the table are not limited to the phenomenon of misclassification, as several
 elements indicate that relevant shares of genuinely independent contractors and service
 providers suffer from the of lack basic guarantees in terms of pay, terms and conditions of
 employment, collective voice and social security.
    The international conference “Beyond Employment. Protecting Autonomous Work”,
 hosted by the Marco Biagi Foundation of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in
 March 2021, provided an opportunity to discuss in depth the nature of the problems faced
 by the self-employed and to compare the initiatives undertaken by national and supranational
 lawmakers to tackle such problems. Part of the essays included in this Issue, namely those
 written by Chiara Garbuio, Caterina Mazzanti, Kamila Naumowicz and Veronica Papa, were
 originally presented in the conference. In this sense, they anticipate a broader collection of
 contributions forthcoming in the early months of 2022 by the publishing house Palgrave
 Macmillan. The essays by Garbuio, Mazzanti, Naumowicz and Papa elaborate on examples
 taken from the jurisdictions of Italy, Poland and the European Union, to illustrate possible
 ways to protect genuine independent contractors from the emerging risks of economic
 dependency, contractual imbalance and declining income that were typically deemed to
 characterize only subordinate employees. The picture is enriched by a further contribution
 by Maria Salas Porras that addresses the national case of Spain, where specific instruments
 have been introduced by the law to align the classification of certain categories of
 independent contractors to their actual labour market situation. The outcome is, we hope, a
 comprehensive overview on one of the most urgent matters for contemporary labour law,
 that will engage scholars, courts and policy makers for still a long time ahead.




 Copyright © 2021 Edoardo Ales, Iacopo Senatori. This article is released under a Creative
 Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.




 *
     Professor of Labour Law, Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope.
 †   Assistant Professor of Labour Law, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia.
