COLLECTIVE LABOR RIGHTS IN THE GIG-ECONOMY OF UKRAINE: PROBLEMS OF THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

The article considers the issue of determining the collective rights of employees of digital labor platforms of the gig-economy. Ukraine, according to the International Labor Organization, is one of the countries with the fastest growth rates of the gig-economy, and therefore the problem of legal regulation of the entire complex of relations that make up the system of the gig-economy both in the European Union and in Ukraine, among which the central place is occupied by labor, is relevant, theoretically and practically significant. This necessitates a comprehensive study of the mentioned problem, with the aim of modernizing national legislation in accordance with EU law. The urgency of the problem is also explained by the fact of a sharp increase in the number of people employed in this field, especially during the pandemic. According to separate data, there are approximately 500 platforms operating in the EU today, employing 28 million people. It is expected that their number will increase to 43 million by 2025. According to the European Commission, about 5.5 million of them are mistakenly classified as self-employed, although according to the basic parameters they belong to hired workers (employees). Accordingly, they do not have adequate labor rights and social protection. Similar problems exist in Ukraine, which ranks first in Europe and fourth in the world in terms of the number of employees and the volume of financial flows in this field of activity. By the way, a significant part of them belongs to informal employment, which is also stated in the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement (paragraph h of Article 421). It should be noted that the concept of collective labor law of the digital platform is absent in the national legislation. Millions of workers do not have adequate legal status, and therefore no corresponding rights. First of all – collective ones. Its solution is quite difficult. The workers themselves are dispersed, do not form labor teams, and communicate very little personally. Taking into account the low level of legal regulation of production activity in general, and especially in the field of the gig-economy, exchange rate policy, which makes it possible, taking into account the fact that a significant part of production activity is carried out for foreign customers with payments in foreign currency, to receive often significantly more compared to domestic ones workers in typical forms of employment – it should be recognized that a significant part of gig workers are generally satisfied with the existing state of affairs, their formal status as a professional worker or its absence at all. So, in our opinion, taking into account the country’s course for integration with the EU and the status of a candidate state for joining the Union, the first step on the way to improving the legal mechanism for regulating relations in the field of the gig economy could be the transposition of the above-mentioned legal acts of the EU into the national law of Ukraine.