10.6092/issn.1561-8048/17627
The essay examines the challenges related to the industrial relations system in the Metaverse. After analysing the current national and European regulatory framework, the Author focuses on collective information rights, as the main tool through which achieving a balance between AI and social rights. In this context, the company-level collective agreements appear the most appropriate tool to ensure an adequate protection. Within such a framework, trade unions are called upon to rediscover their own role of employee representation and also involvement.
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Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Collective bargaining
Collective Labour Relations in the Metaverse
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2023-07-20
2023-07-07
2023-07-20
2023-07-20
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Federico Pisani
2023/07/20
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/17627
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1561-8048
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Collective bargaining
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Collective Labour Relations in the Metaverse
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Collective Labour Relations in the Metaverse.                                                 Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Federico Pisani                                                                                      Issue 1, Vol. 16 (2023)
federico.pisani@uniroma3.it                                                                                ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                            https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/17627




           Collective Labour Relations in the Metaverse.
                                                 Federico Pisani*

1. Preamble. 2. Information rights and collective bargaining. 3. Trade unions’ role in the
Metaverse. 4. Conclusions.

                                                         Abstract

    The essay examines the challenges related to the industrial relations system in the Metaverse.
    After analysing the current national and European regulatory framework, the Author focuses on
    collective information rights, as the main tool through which achieving a balance between AI and
    social rights. In this context, the company-level collective agreements appear the most
    appropriate tool to ensure an adequate protection. Within such a framework, trade unions are
    called upon to rediscover their own role of employee representation and also involvement.

    Keywords: Metaverse, Collective Labour Relations, trade unions, information rights, collective
    bargaining


1. Preamble.

   There is no doubt that labour law today is struggling with a new reality, whose boundaries
we know little about, due to the unprecedented pace of technological innovation.
   It is equally clear that it is difficult for a labour law researcher to understand the new
challenges that could adversely affect the person of the individual worker,1 since the work is
profoundly different than in the past in terms of the time and manner of performance, the
professional content required, the role in the production process, and the power in the
economic and social system.2
   In effect, in the Metaverse, workers are ‘immersed’, via holograms or avatars, in a digital,
social, virtual dimension, where they perform a part or even their entire work activity.3



* Postdoctoral researcher, Università degli Studi Roma Tre. This essay has been submitted to a double-blind
peer review.
1 Peruzzi M.,“Almeno tu nel metaverso”: il diritto del lavoro e la sfida dei nuovi spazi digitali, in Labour & Law Issues, 2,

2022, 65, where the Author emphasises that for labour law researchers attempting to immerse themselves in
this new dimension, the sense of confusion is inevitable, facing tentative classifications of cases, the warning of
increased risks to workers' rights and freedoms, and the difficulty of assessing the actual realisation and scope
of the issues.
2 Already back in 1985, at the time of the third industrial revolution, Carinci expressed himself in these terms.

See Carinci F., Rivoluzione tecnologica e diritto del lavoro: il rapporto individuale, in Giornale di Diritto del Lavoro e delle
Relazioni Industriali, 1985, 241 ff.
3 Maio V., Diritto del lavoro e metaverso. Se il lavoro non è un (video)gioco, in Labour & Law Issues, 2, 2022, 42; Martone

M., Prime riflessioni su lavoro e metaverso, in Argomenti di Diritto del Lavoro, 6, 2022, 1131 ff.; about the distinction
between “Ancillary Meta-Work” and “Pure Meta-Work”, see Biasi M., Murgo M., The virtual space of the Metaverse
and the fiddly identification of the applicable labour law, in Italian Labour Law e-Journal, 1, 2023.
    Federico Pisani                                                                                Italian Labour Law e-Journal
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    There are many issues that arise in connection with this new reality, where the workplace
changes,4 and so do the modalities of performance and regulation.
    The Metaverse seems to be halfway between the traditional mode of performing work in
the presence and the now widespread mode of working remotely, since the regulations
envisaged for both modes of work can be (somehow) applied.5
    Moreover, this technology seems more likely to have an impact on the labour market in
the next few years than others, if we consider that companies are potentially able to have
virtual offices that increasingly resemble physical ones and use remote workers located all
over the world, while also being able to outsource office work to Countries with much lower
wages;6 this opens up completely new scenarios, also in terms of social dumping, which until
now globalisation had only been used to considering with reference to manufacturing.7
    In this context, the – still, prospective – development of collective bargaining should take
into account the new interests.8 However, it is difficult to expect such processes to take place
in the immediate future, due to the uncertainty surrounding the identification of the subjects
and object of bargaining,9 as well to the effects of trade union negotiations, also because of
the complexity of adjusting the already existing protections overall relating to collective
relations in our legal system in light of the changes underway.
    This consideration does not rule out that, at the basis of any hypothesis of legal regulation,
the ‘compass’ for the legislator, the judge and the trade unions should be the attempt to
‘humanise’ this new reality, where the avatar is not a person, but a ‘virtual object’, created to
perform even high-level services, but still the result of processing data produced by a human
mind.10
    In the end, it is necessary that the protection and remedies to safeguard the new needs
come primarily from the adaptation and updating of the rules already existing in the legal


4 Donini A., Novella M., Il metaverso come luogo di Lavoro. Configurazione e questioni regolative, in Labour & Law Issues,
2, 2022, 12. according to the Authors, it is the human work performed in physical reality that concurs to form,
populate and operate the metaverse; Lombardi M., Il lavoro nel metaverso: uno spazio indefinito del possibile, in Labour
& Law Issues, 2, 2022, 35-36, according to the Author, the uses of the metaverse so far appear to be
‘recreational’, rather than generators of multidimensional ‘cyberplaces’ in which energies could be released to
imagine more pleasant scenarios in which to carry out work activities; the author is concerned about the lack
of regulation of virtual spaces, especially when considering that immersive technologies are a source of
enormous power to control individual and collective behaviour, especially when combined with a series of
disturbing technologies for privacy and decision-making and collective processes (in fact, they are very powerful
tools for surveillance during work performance through tracking, control of facial movements, and behavioural
and emotional profiling).
5 Martone M., nt. (3), 1136-1137. The Author suggests that in the metaverse the performance could in some

cases still be linked to the result (as is the case in the regulation of remote work), which would be more easily
measurable through technology; in other cases, it could depend on the measurement of time (as in face-to-face
work), since the presence of the avatar (as the 'soul' of the worker) is required.
6 This occurs, for example, in the case of so-called “crowd-workers”, Carinci M.T., Henke A., Employment relations

via the web with international elements: Issues and proposals as to the applicable law and determination of jurisdiction in light of
EU rules and principles, in European Labour Law Journal, 12, 2, 2021,134 ff.
7 Biasi M., Murgo M., nt. (3)
8 De Stefano V., Aloisi A., Countouris N., Il Metaverso è una questione di diritto, 2022, available on www.socialeurope.eu.
9 Biasi M., Il decent work e la dimensione virtuale: spunti di riflessione sulla regolazione del lavoro nel Metaverso, in Lavoro

Diritti Europa, 1, 2023, 10.
10 Romeo C., L’avatar, il metaverso e le nuove frontiere del lavoro: traguardo o recessione, in Il lavoro nella giurisprudenza, 5,

2023, 476.

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     Federico Pisani                                                                      Italian Labour Law e-Journal
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system, without the intervention of ad hoc legislation; other measures should instead start
‘from the bottom’, since the metaverse dimension, far from being a borderline mode of work
performance or a new contractual subtype, will increasingly hold a greater attractiveness for
multiple workers.
    In the following paragraphs, collective information rights, as effective expedients for
attempting to make the 'virtual' world of the Metaverse 'human', will be explored in the light
of a review of the main provisions within the European legal framework. In particular, it will
be examined whether company collective bargaining may be the most suitable instrument to
guarantee adequate protection for the new emerging demands. Finally, attention will be
focused on the unprecedented role that the trade union will assume in the Metaverse and
with it, inevitably, other trade union rights.


2. Information rights and collective bargaining.

   On the collective bargaining side, an examination of the current national and European
regulatory framework cannot be ignored, with reference to the impact of new technologies
on work, as well as the current and potential impact of this global process on workers'
individual and collective rights.
   In this regard, some preliminary thoughts can be taken from the very recent Proposal for
a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on AI,11 which is an extremely
important step as it is the first at global level on the regulation of artificial intelligence.
   In fact, one may assume a direct application of the regulations entailed in the Proposal
even to the metaverse world,12 although some concerns of the first commentators of the AI
act have already been expressed.13
   Furthermore, some provisions even seem to open the door to collective protection for
digital workers, through the involvement of workers' representatives.
   In particular, according to the transparency obligations governed by Article 52 of the
aforementioned Proposal, providers of AI and users (employers) must inform individuals
interacting with such IA systems, unless this is clear from the circumstances and context of
use.14



11 The “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised
rules on artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence act) and amending certain union legislative acts”, Brussels,
21 April 2021, COM (2021) 206 final, was adopted by the European Parliament on 14 June 2023 by 499 votes
in favour, 28 against and 93 abstentions. Currently, discussions with the EU governments in the Council are
ongoing in order to reach a final draft of the regulation.
12 Amendment 165 to the Draft Regulation (specifically Art. 3(1)), which defines "artificial intelligence system"

(AI system) as: an automated system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and which, for explicit
or implicit purposes, can generate outputs such as predictions, recommendations or decisions that influence
physical or virtual environments.
13 Compare Maio V., report to the conference "Regolazione del lavoro e proposta di regolamento europeo sull’intelligenza

artificiale", held at the CNEL (National Economic and Labour Council) premises on 7 November 2022, as part
of the '2022LABChain Workshops: Intelligenza artificiale e mercati digitali: sfide per il diritto del lavoro’.
14 Art. 52, par. 1 of the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on AI.



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    Particularly strict information obligations are imposed on employers of those “emotion”
recognition or biometric categorisation systems or systems that generate or manipulate text
or audio or visual content that may appear falsely authentic to the individuals involved.15
    An additional reference can also be made to the obligation of human surveillance16 that
falls on the employer as the user of the AI system; this obligation is aimed at managing and
containing the risk that may arise from the use of AI systems and must be communicated to
the system provider.17 The proper fulfilment of this obligation is relevant both for the
protection of workers health and safety, pursuant to Directive 89/391/EEC, and in terms
of the guarantees required in the processing of personal data under the GDPR. In this regard,
the participatory dimension may be expanded with reference to the impact assessment of the
processing of the relevant data under Article 35 GDPR, given the relevance that the
discussion with workers and their representatives may assume, pursuant to paragraph 9.18
    In this context, the necessary involvement of workers’ representatives in automated
decision-making processes and, in general, in the implementation of systems based on
algorithms such as artificial intelligence is highlighted,19 considering that the Proposal itself
classifies them according to “risk”; to this end, it is useful to recall the role entrusted to
collective bargaining by Article 88 GDPR, for the introduction of more specific rules in the
sphere of labour relations, including for the protection of the exercise and enjoyment,
individual or collective, of rights.20
    A participatory dimension could also be ensured with reference to the risk management
inherent in AI systems, as governed by Article 9 of the Proposal, which provides for the
communication to employers of any dangers associated with the use of "high-risk" artificial
intelligence tools, in addition to information for the use of such tools as provided in Article
13.21
    The above-mentioned Proposal stimulates a reflection on the presence in multiple
provisions of an information right of an individual nature, which on the contrary could be

15 Art. 52, par. 2-3 of the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on AI.
16 Art. 29, of the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on AI. In this sense,
interesting is the principle of “human in the loop”, that provides for the need to ensure human control of the
process, governed by art. 22 GDPR.
17 Cf. Amendment 404 to Art. 29 par. 4: “Deployers shall monitor the operation of the high-risk AI system on

the basis of the instructions of use and when relevant, inform providers in accordance with Article 61. When
they have reasons to consider that the use in accordance with the instructions of use may result in the AI system
presenting a risk within the meaning of Article 65(1), they shall, without undue delay, inform the provider or
distributor and relevant national supervisory authorities and suspend the use of the system. They shall also
immediately inform first the provider, and then the importer or distributor and relevant national supervisory
authorities when they have identified any serious incident or any malfunctioning within the meaning of Article
62 and interrupt the use of the AI system.”. Interesting is also Amendment No. 408 to Art. 29, para. 5a
according to which “Prior to putting into service or use a high-risk AI system at the workplace, deployers shall
consult workers representatives with a view to reaching an agreement in accordance with Directive
2002/14/EC and inform the affected employees that they will be subject to the system.”
18 Peruzzi M., “Almeno tu nel metaverso”: il diritto del lavoro e la sfida dei nuovi spazi digitali, in Labour & Law Issues, 2,

2022, 71.
19 De Torres Bòveda N., Artificial intelligence and personal data protection in the company: the role of workers’ representatives,

in Menegatti E. (ed.), Law, Technology and Labour, Italian Labour Law e-Studies, Bologna, 2023, 61.
20 Peruzzi M., nt. (18)
21 Amendment 271 to Art. 9, par. 4, comma 1, lett. c): “provision of the required information pursuant to

Article 13, and, where appropriate, training to deployers”.

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reconsidered in a collective sense. This was the case, for example, in the Proposed Directive
on Platform Work, in which it emerged that the path of building collective information rights
can be one of the main tools through which to achieve the balance between AI and social
rights.22
   More specifically, the Article 9 of the Proposed Directive states that platforms must
inform workers’ representatives or workers themselves about algorithmic management
decisions; digital workers, whether self-employed or employed, have the right to know how
job performance evaluations are made by the algorithm (if the employer knows it; one of the
most disturbing dimensions of these technologies is the possibility of getting out of hand of
the employer himself, who is often not even aware of the real potential of such tools), how
the reputational ranking is formulated, which are the criteria for assignment of tasks,
determination of working hours, possible account deactivation by the platform.
   Indeed, in order to “humanize” the dimension of the Metaverse, it is essential to build the
right to information in a shared way, with the necessary contribution of workers, through
their representations, just as, in a comparative perspective, has happened in the Spanish
experience.
   In particular, the reference is to Royal Decree Law 9/2021,23 which introduced in Section
4 of Article 64 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores a paragraph (d) that recognizes the right of
the “company committee” (“comité de empresa”) to be informed and consulted by the
employer, on a quarterly basis, including on the parameters, rules and instructions, which
concern the algorithms or artificial intelligence systems that regulate decision-making
processes, working conditions, access and management of the relationship.24
   In other words, what happened in the Spanish legal system has been a true “rediscovery”
of information rights.25
   Indeed, the aforementioned Decree had the primacy of extending these rights to workers’
representative bodies, placing the issue of digital control and management of labor
organization in the sphere of collective interest, as workers’ representatives have the right to
be informed, enabling them to exercise a form of control over employers’ decisions made by
or through the intervention of algorithmic tools. This is even more relevant considering that
the provision has a general application, since it extends to any enterprise that uses tools

22 Loi P., Il rischio proporzionato nella proposta di regolamento sull’IA, e i suoi effetti nel rapporto di lavoro, in Federalismi, 4,
2023, 251.
23 Article 1, par. 1, provides regulation aimed to ensure platform workers have the right to be informed and

represented in the “digitized” work environment.
24 Under this provision, the works council, with the periodicity appropriate in each case, shall have the right to

be informed by the company of the parameters, rules and instructions on which algorithms or artificial
intelligence systems are based that affect decision-making that may have an impact on working conditions,
access to and maintenance of employment, including profiling (“El comité de empresa, con la periodicidad que proceda
en cada caso, tendrá derecho a: (…) d) Ser informado por la empresa de los parámetros, reglas e instrucciones en los que se basan
los algoritmos o sistemas de inteligencia artificial que afectan a la toma de decisiones que pueden incidir en las condiciones de trabajo,
el acceso y mantenimiento del empleo, incluida la elaboración de perfiles”).
25 Navarro Nieto F.., Los derechos de participación de los trabajadores en el nuevo escenario del Derecho del Trabajo en España,

Tirant Lo Blanch, Valencia, 2015, 18: According to the Author, only a profound renewal of the strategy of the
subjects of labour relations and a political-institutional framework favourable to a culture of participation (and
state support for business policies based on innovation, training and competitiveness) can contribute to
changing the inertia.

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     Federico Pisani                                                                            Italian Labour Law e-Journal
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governed by artificial intelligence. In this sense, the trade unions can exercise control over
the “neutrality” of the criteria and parameters used by AI itself in decision-making processes
on the organization of work.26
    Moreover, the recognition of this right might be expressed within the company
dimension, which means that sectoral agreements could use this instrument to identify the
general principles within which company bargaining could further operate27. Similarly,
collective bargaining could also define the requirements for access to work on the Metaverse
and the related protections, with reference to – borrowing again from the taxonomy
enhanced by Marco Biasi – “Ancillary Meta-Work” and not to “Pure Meta-Work”; this is
along the lines of what happened in the regulation of remote work (of which, as mentioned
above, ancillary work on the Metaverse should constitute an evolution)28 in which collective
bargaining was entrusted with identifying the working activities and the methods of
personnel selection.29
    In addition, the workers’ right to information should have the effect of limiting the
information asymmetry accentuated by the employer’s use of digital tools based on encrypted
codes and algorithms; indeed, the vulnerability that ontologically characterizes the situation
of the worker as a weak contractor seems today to be accentuated not only by the increasingly
pervasive use of artificial intelligence systems, but also and above all by a kind of loss of
collective identity and class consciousness of workers.30
    It is therefore indispensable that digital transformation be approached as a shared social
process, within which to develop participatory dynamics that project the phenomenon, with
its complexity, into the inherently collective dimension of work.31
    To this end, the recognition of information rights would be relevant, even though it
represents the weakest level of collective participation given that, just as is evident in the
Spanish case, it is limited to the mere duty of the employer to provide data to the company
committee, with the exclusion of a real obligation to initiate a consultation process with the
committee itself (as in hypotheses such as, modification of working conditions, company
transfers, company succession or collective dismissals).32



26 Pisani F., La proposta di direttiva UE per i lavoratori delle piattaforme digitali e il Real Decreto- Ley 9/2021 spagnolo, in
Lavoro e Previdenza Oggi, 1-2, 2022, 90.
27 Ibid., 92.
28 Maio V., nt. (3); Martone M., nt. (3).
29 M. Biasi, nt. (9), 11.
30 Bini S., “Industry 5.0” and digital information at the workplace: reflections from Spain, in Menegatti E. (ed)., Law,

Technology and Labour, Italian Labour Law e-Studies, Bologna, 2023, 35.
31 Bini S., Introduction to Blockchain: Between “Autonomisation” and Automatization, Challenges and Risks for Labour Law,

in Addabbo T., Ales E., Curzi Y., Fabbri T., Rymkevich O., Senatori I. (eds.), Defining and Protecting Autonomous
Work. A Multidisciplinary Approach, Palgrave MacMillan, London, 2022, 123-158.
32 Compare F. Pisani, nt. (26); Baylos Grau A., A vueltas con el algoritmo: derechos de información y negociación colectiva, in

Baylos Grau A., Según Antonio Baylos. Información, discusión y propuestas sobre las relaciones de trabajo y la ciudadanía
social, 20 May 2021, https://baylos.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-vueltas-con-el-algoritmo-derechos-de.html , last
accessed on 16 October 2021. According to the Author, the recognition of this right at the weakest level of
participation, which refers to the righ to information, without any attempt having been made to establish a duty
to initiate a consultation process on this matter, as is the case in more important cases such as the modification
of working conditions, transfers of undertakings, succession of undertakings or collective redundancies.

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    The absence of supranational provisions on the protection of personal data when artificial
intelligence is used in the work environment, and in any case the lack of collective guarantees,
makes collective bargaining, and in particular company- level collective bargaining, the most
appropriate tool for covering this legislative gap, the benefits of which have been widely
recognized,33 adapting easily to the needs of each context,34 as well as generally to changes in
the labor market and actively involving the parties concerned in negotiation.35
    In this context, it could be useful the involvement of workers’ representatives in the
procedures for implementing and modifying algorithmic systems, especially when they are a
source of artificial intelligence; the enhancement of training on new technologies for both
workers and their representatives so that they can understand and exercise their rights in a
qualified manner; the establishment of internal protocols or rules on the protection of
personal data; the establishment of an internal complaints channel at the service of workers.36
    Obviously, it would be necessary to avoid, especially in such a technical matter, the so-
called “bureaucratization” of information, as was the case of GDPR, whose amount of data
pouring into those who should control it is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the
control itself.37
    Here, of course, the problem would be even more pronounced, given the complexity of
the tools used to make the Metaverse perform, so that the situation could arise whereby
neither the worker nor the trade unions is able to understand the meaning of the information
shared.
The need to implement information rights with respect to the potentially detrimental effects
of the use of technology at work also emerged in the European Framework Agreement on
Digitalisation38, in which the European trade unions argued in favour of strengthening not
only information rights, but also trade union consultation rights, with particular reference to
the design and organisation logic of new technologies. Moreover, this Agreement highlighted
the need for the installation of information technologies to be the subject of collective


33 De Stefano V., Masters and servers’: collective labour rights and private government in the contemporary world of work, in
International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 4, 36, 2020, 442; Mercader Uguina J.,
Algoritmos: personas y números en el Derecho Digital del Trabajo, in La Ley, 2394, 3, 2021, 11-12; Garrigues Giménez
A., La respuesta negocial al uso de algoritmos en la relación de trabajo: bases, previsiones, presencias y ausencias, in Rivas Vallejo
M. P. (ed.), Discriminación algorítmica en el ámbito laboral, Aranzadi Thomson Reuters, Cizur, 2022, 635-668; Wood
A. J., Algorithmic management. Consequences for work organisation and working conditions, in JRC Working papers series on
Labour, education and technology, European Commission, Seville, 7, 2021,14; UNI Global Union, Top 10 principles
for workers ’data privacy and protection, 2017, available on
http://www.thefutureworldofwork.org/media/35421/uni_workers_data_protection.pdf
34 Ferri V., Ricci A., Scicchitano S., Tesauro G., Lavoro da remoto, contrattazione aziendale e innovazione: un’analisi

empirica per l’Italia, in SINAPPSI, 3, 2021,126 ff.
35 De Torres Bòveda N., nt. (19), 62-63.
36 De Torres Bòveda N., ibidem, 62-63.
37 Compare Nogueira Guastavino M., Mangan D., The metaverse matrix of labour law, in Italian Labour Law e-Journal,

2023, 1, who focuses on the collection and processing of data in the metaverse that would change legal concepts
such as proportionality because every movement or expression would be captured within a system capable of
processing this volume of data.
38 European Social Partners Framework Agreement on Digitalisation, signed on 22 June 2020 between the

ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) and employer organisations at European level (Businesseurope,
Ceep, Sme United). Smisman S., The European Social Dialogue in the Shadow of Hierarchy, in Journal of Public Policy,
2008, 28(1), 161-180: the author sees this contract as a “self-initiated and self-implemented collective agreement”.

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     Federico Pisani                                                                                 Italian Labour Law e-Journal
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bargaining, especially when the company has at its disposal a large amount of information
(so-called big data), which obviously cannot be the subject of a form of indiscriminate
collection, free storage or processing39. Therefore, this Agreement emphasised the
importance of introducing stricter rules through collective bargaining, as well as to allow
workers' representatives to access data, examine issues related to their use and request
information on the different stages of their management, echoing the principles already set
out in the GDPR on the minimisation of data collection and transparency40.
Last but not least is Directive 2002/14/EC on informing and consulting employees (which
was also the basis for the proposal for a directive on employees working through digital
platforms). Information rights appear here to be subordinate to consultation rights41, as
information is understood as the transmission of data by the employer to the employees’
representatives to enable them to take knowledge of the issue at hand and to examine it42.
whereas the right to consultation is to be understood, according to the Directive, as the
exchange of views and the establishment of a dialogue between the employees
representatives and the employer43.


3. Trade union’s role in the Metaverse.

   The advent of the digitization of work in every type of enterprise also induces reflection
on the new guise that the trade union will take on and the instruments through which it can
concretely exercise the freedom and activity of participation in the life and decisions of the
company, bearing in mind that, for example, the discipline in this regard in Italy largely dates
back to the 1970s and is governed by the Workers’ Statute, which was evidently designed for
a pre-computerized labour reality; in other words, the reference is to the necessary adaptation
that the moment of assembly, referendum and in general union rights will have to undergo
as a result of the current changes.44
   However, the reconstruction of the statutory regulations, which require the presence of
workers in a "physical" workplace (for example, the provisions on assembly, referendum and
posting), now "virtual," cannot disregard the function of these regulations and the “rationale”
behind them.45

39 Rota, A., Sull’Accordo quadro europeo in tema di digitalizzazione del lavoro, in Labour & Law Issues, 2020, 2, 6, 39,
42.
40
   Framework Agreement on Digitalisation, 7: It might be necessary to provide workers ’representatives with
“such facilities and information as necessary to effectively engage in the different stages”; Battista L., The European Framework
Agreement on Digitalisation: a tough coexistence within the EU mosaic of actions, in Italian Labour Law e-Journal, 1, 14,
2021, 115.; Compare https://www.etuc.org/en/pressrelease/gdpr-being-misused-employers-hinder-trade-
unions; See Senatori I, The European Framework Agreement on Digitalisation: a Whiter Shade of Pale?, in Italian Labour
Law e-Journal Issue, 2, 13, 2020, 159-173.
41 Loi P., Il rischio proporzionato nella proposta di regolamento sull’IA, e i suoi effetti nel rapporto di lavoro, in Federalismi, 4,

2023, 251
42 Art. 2(f) of Directive 2002/14/EC.
43 Art. 2(g) of Directive 2002/14/EC.
44 Trojsi A., Sul ruolo del sindacato e sulle funzioni dell’autonomia collettiva aziendale: dallo Statuto dei Lavoratori al blocco

dei licenziamenti economici, in Lavoro Diritti Europa, 3, 2021, 3-4.
45 Di Meo R., I diritti sindacali nell’era del caporalato digitale, in Labour & Law Issues, 2019, 2, 5, 72.



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     Federico Pisani                                                                                 Italian Labour Law e-Journal
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    As has been argued, trade union is called upon to rediscover “its own role, of
representation and participation, autonomous and original, in the community re-engineered
work organization”.46
    For example, with specific reference to the reality of the Metaverse, trade unions could
be within it to protect workers’ rights and future avatar demands, blockchain tools could be
used to hold union elections, collect union dues, and finally the metaverse will be used as a
mechanism for communicating and holding meetings.47
    Based on a reading of the new changes in labour relations, it has been pointed out, for
example, that the virtual dimension could, in some cases, facilitate the exercise of union
rights, considering that virtual places are immediately accessible and easily facilitate the
exchange of information.48
    Thus, these new arrangements could offset the inevitable difficulties for unionization
resulting from the “dispersal” of workers who are no longer physically in the company.
    Similarly, it has been noted that new modalities of collective self-defence are also matched
by new defensive strategies of employers, who may, for example, replace the avatar of a
striking worker with an automated avatar, resorting in this sense to so-called technological
strike-breaking.49
    Even if it takes place in a 'virtual place', a strike by workers in the Metaverse will still have
to take the form of non-implementation of a service50; indeed, new forms of trade union
action could occur in this context, aimed at suspending the performance of workers or
slowing down, for example, the functionality of a service51; which could reintroduce the
problems regarding the legitimacy of such industrial action, arising in connection with
anomalous forms of strike, such as, for example, the strike of duties or even boycotts.
    Finally, as mentioned in par. 2, it should also be emphasized here the need for trade union
to acquire technical skills, in order to be able to both fully understand the operation of AI
systems52, and to develop global framework agreements on rights for Meta-workers or, in the
national perspective, to enter into ad hoc collective agreements for these workers.

46 Caruso B., Del Punta R., Treu T., Manifesto per un diritto del lavoro sostenibile, 20th May 2020, 53-54.
47 Nogueira Guastavino M., Metaverso e legislazione applicabile al contratto di lavoro, in Argomenti di Diritto del Lavoro,
3, 2023, 457.
48 D’Andrea A., Il ruolo dell’innovazione tecnologica nella trasformazione dei diritti dei lavoratori, in Revista Direito Das

Relações Sociais E Trabalhistas, 8, 1, 2022, 69-70; compare it with Forlivesi M., Alla ricerca di tutele collettive per i
lavoratori digitali, in Labour & Law Issues, 2, 2022, 40-42; Lassandari A., Problemi di rappresentanza e tutela collettiva
dei lavoratori che utilizzano le tecnologie digitali, in Quaderni Rivista giuridica del lavoro e della previdenza sociale, 2, 2017,68-
69, who, in relation to platform workers, highlights the rise of collective interests globally opening new spaces
for collective action and conflict.
49 Maio V., nt. (3), 52.
50 Giugni G., Diritto sindacale, Cacucci, Bari, 2014, 266.
51 Maio V., Sciopero e conflitto nel lavoro digitale. Osservazioni in tema di net strike, twitter storm e off simultaneo degli smart

workers, in Federalismi, 17, 2022, 151-153. In fact, here the author examines the recent phenomena of the net
strike and the twitter storm, which occurred in the context of remote work; these reflections, by analogy,
could also be dropped into the context of the Metaverse.
52 Maio V., Il diritto del lavoro e le nuove sfide della rivoluzione robotica, in Argomenti di Diritto Lavoro, 6, 2018, 1439,

which refers to Article 9, par. 3, of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving
working conditions in platform work makes the expenses (as long as they are proportionate) incurred by the
trade union for consulting a computer expert borne by the platforms when they have more than five hundred
employees; Lassandari A., La tutela collettiva del lavoro nelle piattaforme digitali: gli inizi di un percorso difficile, in Labour
& Law Issues, 4, 2018, 15-16 that, with regard to platform workers, highlights the trade union's difficulty in

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/17627                                                                                       49
  Federico Pisani                                                                                  Italian Labour Law e-Journal
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                                                                                                                 Section: Theme




4. Conclusion.

    There are many challenges currently related to the industrial relations systems: one of the
most important goals will be to make transparent such an obscure and complex process as
the digitization of the organization of work, with respect to which there is a strong risk of an
increased power of the employer.
    Therefore, a crucial role might, in the first place, be played by the expansion of the right
to information and its recognition in a “collective” sense, since “in labor relations, especially
when connoted by relations of authority and subjection to legal powers of the employer,
information is considered a tool aimed at redefining the balancing and coordination of the
interests at stake, to protect the weaker contractor”.53
    Secondly, transparency should be represented by the sharing of the data and related
processes that led to a given entrepreneurial decision, because this is the only way to ensure
that decisions based on algorithms can be syndicated and reviewed humanely, on equal terms.
    This could lead to a kind of digital “Mitbestimmung”, which could meet strong resistances
from the entrepreneurial side, because it would give labor organizations access to the so-
called “control room”.
    Such data management could also prove to be a useful tool for conflict management, as
an algorithm might be able to presage the consequences of a proclaimed strike, based on the
information in its possession.54




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https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/17627                                                                  52
