June 17, 2024, 12.43pm
4 min read
Palermo – After Covid, according to some estimates, the people who earn income in Italy from working on a digital platform they have now become around 2 million, of which almost 100 thousand
riders.
But to date the country lacks a law that regulates the various aspects of this new type of activity, which in recent years has presented several problems especially in terms of artificial intelligence applied to the automatic control of work.
Problems addressed in Palermo in the conference “Tax, work and the future” organized by the Provincial Order of Labor Consultants.
Riders, the conference
Giuseppe Tango, magistrate of the Labor section of the Court of Palermo, summarized the facts: “In the absence and waiting for a legislative framework, it was the jurisprudence that took on a decisive role in the qualification, first, and in providing significant protections, then, towards this category of workers”.
“These are characterized work performances – added Tango from the use of a digital platform that works on the basis of undisclosed algorithms, but which certainly, far from carrying out mere intermediation activities with the client, exclusively pursue the interest of the entrepreneur who prepares them. In these platforms each worker is placed in a ranking, with his own score, conditioned by various factors, such as the experience acquired, the feedback from customers and restaurateurs, the misalignment from the indicated path, and so on”.
The results and scores
The ranking is given by scores based on the individual’s results and, if the score drops, orders are gradually reduced until “detachment” from the platform, i.e. dismissal. Among the facts that lower the score there are, for example, also absences, but the algorithm does not distinguish between absence due to illness (or due to an unexpected event, such as a demonstration that blocks traffic) and unjustified absence.
In essence, Fabrizio Di Modica, president of the Committee, analyzed scientific technician of the “Il Lavoro Continua” study center, “the guidelines of the new European regulation ‘Ai Act’ approved in March, as well as the draft enabling law that the Italian government approved and sent to Parliament in May for conversion in law, provide for the principle according to which the application of Artificial Intelligence to employment relationship must necessarily guarantee certain protectionssuch as the right to privacy, the right to confidentiality in the processing of personal data, the right to safety in the workplace, the right to know in advance the setting criteria
of control algorithms. The main weapon for the worker is knowledge of Artificial Intelligence, its risks and its
opportunity”.
“In fact – explained Judge Tango – when at a certain moment these workers turned to the judiciary to claim their rights, the judges, despite the fact that they were workers with unprecedented and modern contours, had to resort to traditional legal categories. And the Court of Palermo was a pioneer in Italy, issuing the first sentences that classified these workers as subordinates, also providing protection in terms of dismissal and safety at work”.
The opinion of employment consultants
Labor consultants believe that, to prevent abuses and disputes, the “dialogical” model adopted in Germany should be adopted regarding Artificial Intelligence in the company, i.e. a comparison
quote between entrepreneurs, labor consultants and workers that makes the criteria of the algorithms and the rules that both parties must comply with in a transparent way: “While waiting for Italy to transpose the European regulation “Ai Act” into law – proposed the president of the Palermo labor consultants, Antonino Alessi – a pilot project could be launched in an agreed manner in Palermo, as part of second level bargaining which, if it works, could be extended to the whole of Italy”.
“It’s about resurrecting the safety policy document introduced by the Code in the field
of personal data protection and then repealed by the Simplifications decree. In Palermo we could test the effectiveness of the figure of the ‘Workers’ Manager for Artificial Intelligence’, which has the task, to protect both the company and the workers, of preventing risks acquiring information on the setting of the algorithms, verifying their correct application, reporting anomalies. In short,
ensuring a transparent relationship between the parties”.
The advisor of the Fonarcom Fund
“The financial tools to learn about artificial intelligence and make it an opportunity there are, even in Sicily – announced Lucia Alfieri, board member of the Fonarcom interprofessional fund –. We finance continuing training courses, for entrepreneurs and workers, and, within the scope of the notice ‘Diginnova’, we also finance training on innovation issues, of digitalisation and sustainability. It is a fundamental tool for acquiring the right skills that can make it happen that AI is truly a way for the company to become more efficient and competitive while respecting rights and for the individual to find work or improve their employment conditions”.
And again: “Knowing artificial intelligence helps create the right balance between opposing needs. From 2019 to today, with ‘Diginnova’ Fonarcom has financed training plans for a total of approximately 18 million euros. The requests came to us from large and medium-sized companies, including from Sicily, but it is important that now even micro and small businesses, which until now have not paid the right attention to AI, approach this which is now a reality that we must deal with in order to remain on the market”.
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Published on
June 17, 2024, 12.43pm
