Conference Agenda

Introduction

Since 2014, digital labor platforms have transformed Brazil’s labor market, with over 1,500 platforms—705 dedicated to transport services alone—operating in the country. Despite their economic relevance, approximately 1.5 million platform workers remain in a regulatory void, caught between contradictory judicial rulings and legislative inertia. Although more than a hundred legislative proposals addressing platform work are under discussion, none have yet provided effective protection for these workers. Bill 12/2024, developed by a tripartite working group, represents the most ambitious attempt at regulation. However, will this initiative translate into real labor protections, or will it remain another well-intended but ineffective reform?

Research Question

This study critically evaluates whether Bill 12/2024 is capable of closing the regulatory gap for platform workers and ensuring effective labor protections. It investigates whether the bill’s provisions can overcome implementation barriers such as enforcement deficits, corporate resistance, and workers' access to labor rights.

Methodology

The study employs a qualitative legal analysis, integrating legislative review, case law examination, and policy evaluation. Primary sources include the official records of the tripartite working group that formulated the bill. Comparative perspectives from international regulatory models help assess the feasibility of the Brazilian approach.

Contribution to Literature

By situating Bill 12/2024 within global debates on the effectiveness of labor regulation, this study contributes to understanding why many well-intended labor laws fail to deliver meaningful change. It assesses whether the bill moves beyond symbolic regulation by providing enforceable rights and institutional mechanisms. Furthermore, it highlights the structural challenges of integrating platform workers into traditional labor law frameworks.

Findings

Preliminary findings suggest that Bill 12/2024 offers an important but incomplete step toward regulating platform work. While it establishes minimum labor protections, a tariff regulation model, and social security mechanisms, the real challenge lies in enforcement. Without robust oversight, the bill may fail to improve working conditions, mirroring the difficulties seen in previous labor reforms. The study argues that effective implementation strategies are crucial for transforming regulatory aspirations into tangible protections for platform workers.

Introduction:

The regulatory landscape for app-operating companies in the transportation sector is evolving rapidly. Despite well-meaning legislative attempts to safeguard essential rights, the recent Brazilian Bill 12/2024 raises significant concerns regarding the adequacy and efficacy of legal protections for workers in this sector. This paper explores the implications of such legislation on labor rights and the broader legal framework governing worker status and protections.

Research Questions:

1. What are the potential impacts of Bill 12/2024 on the legal classification of app-based transportation workers?

2. How does this bill align or conflict with international standards and judicial practices regarding worker autonomy and employment rights?

3. In what ways does Bill 12/2024 reflect broader trends in labor law adaptation to digital economies?

Methodology:

This study adopts a qualitative approach, examining legislative texts, judicial rulings, and secondary literature on labor law and digital economy regulations. Through comparative legal analysis with international cases and doctrinal review, the research seeks to uncover underlying motivations and projected outcomes of the bill's provisions.

Contribution to Literature:

This research contributes to the growing body of literature on the intersection of technology and labor law, offering a critical analysis of the Brazilian legislative response to the gig economy. It situates Bill 12/2024 within global debates on worker classification and legal protection, thereby enhancing the understanding of legislative approaches in emerging markets.

Findings:

The analysis reveals that Bill 12/2024 potentially undermines established labor protections by categorizing workers as autonomous, circumventing traditional judicial roles in determining employment status. This aligns with global patterns toward deregulation but contradicts many international standards advocating for judiciary-based oversight. The bill represents a significant shift in Brazilian labor law, moving away from court jurisdiction over such matters, thus risking reduced protection for workers.

The tension between autonomy and subordination that characterises platform work challenges labour, social security and union statutes, leading to judicial and legislative disputes over the application of traditional employment classifications and the concept of independent contractors, involving workers, companies and governments. In Brazil, this regulatory dispute follows a similar pattern. The agreement forged between the government and the companies was based on the rejection of the classification of app drivers under Brazilian labour law, while at the same time including them in the public social security system. Through a tripartite forum with representatives from companies and trade unions, the government sought to facilitate labour and social security regulation for the sector. However, the content and the agreement reached were rejected by the app driver and courier movements, which do not recognise the unions and claim that their demands have not been effectively addressed. The disputes continue. There are a range of studies on legislative innovations and judicial decisions related to working conditions on digital platforms. A relevant part of them examines the degree of affinity of the legislation and decisions with the ILO Recommendation on Employment Relations (198, 2006). At the same time, there is a substantial body of literature on associativism among platform workers. These movements often combine demands to increase their earnings, reduce company discretion and preserve autonomy. The literature emphasises the importance of informal social networks in organising workers and highlights a notable distrust of trade unions and institutionalised representation. How does the associativity of these workers affect the regulatory frameworks of labour rights and social security within platform markets? How do everyday working conditions and particular forms of organisation challenge the institutional arrangements of worker representation? Adopting a political economy and class composition approach, and mobilising document and interview analysis, the paper examines the interests, strategies and coalitions within the current experience of the associativim of transport platform workers in Brazil in relation to regulatory conflict. The paper suggests that the movements of app drivers and couriers are a key factor in the regulatory process. The analysis also shows how their work routines and organising repertoires within them challenge the notion of the 'most representative organisation', undermining trust not only in unions but also in parties and governments. It articulates the regulation of digital platform work with the broader issue of the legitimacy crisis of democratic regimes, highlighting the need for regulatory and institutional experimentalism.

Introduction

The spread of digital platforms, though a global phenomenon, interacts with local socioeconomic structures. The implications for labour relations in Latin America pose a challenge for academics and policymakers.

Digital platforms benefit from the existence of abundant unemployed, discouraged, and underemployed workers, and contribute to the replacement of protected with unprotected labor, prompting a public debate about their regulation. We hypothesize that this process is an important factor in the restructuring of labour relations in the region.

Based on interviews conducted with delivery workers as part of the project “LABOR RELATIONS IN DIGITAL PLATFORMS IN PERIPHERAL CONTEXTS: A FACTOR OF RE-PATTERNING IN LATIN AMERICA?”, covering Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, this paper discusses how delivery workers perceive their work and act in consequence. The focus will be on a comparison of the cities of Rosario and Santa Fe (Argentina) and Recife (Brazil), to show the impact of different labour market contexts.

Objectives

To identify the similarities and differences in the agency of delivery workers in the selected cities in Argentina and Brazil, analyzing the intersections among "survival strategies," "resistance actions," and "forms of struggle and organization". To generate reflection on whether the agency of delivery workers does or does not contribute to decent work in the region.

Research Question

How do app-based delivery workers in Brazil and Argentina, particularly in the cities of Recife, Rosario, and Santa Fe, perceive their work and how does this influence their actions? How might this influence the realization of decent work?

Methodology

The paper brings together the following elements, all addressed in a comparative framework:

• Contextualization of recent changes in labor market dynamics.

• Systematization of initiatives to regulate platform work, in the context of recent changes in labor legislation.

• Analytical matrix of worker profiles in the three cities, using survey data.

• Synthesis of survival strategies adopted by delivery workers, their forms of organization and actions of resistance against corporate policies.

Contribution to Literature and Findings

• Documentation of the interconnections between the spread of the platform economy and the historical existence of informality in the region.

• Characterization of delivery workers' practices in Brazil and Argentina and of the relational nature of their daily work strategies.

• Identification of similar and differing conditions for the regulation of work in the two contexts, from the perspective of decent work.