Collective labor rights of gig workers: applicability of the experience of Australia, New Zealand and some Asian countries in Russia

Objective: to analyze foreign legislation on the collective labor rights of gig workers (Australia, New Zealand, and some Asian countries) and its reception in Russian legislation.

Methods: dialectical method; a complex of general (system analysis, synthesis, classification, generalization, induction, deduction) and special (specific historical, formal legal, comparative legal) scientific methods of cognition.

Results: the author studied foreign experience of the legal regulation of collective labor relations in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Japan and other countries and substantiated proposals on settling collective labor rights of gig workers in the labor legislation of Russia. These include the following: expanding the area of legal regulation in the Federal Law of January 12, 1996, No. 10-FZ “On trade unions, their rights and performance guarantees” in terms of extending its effect to trade union memberships of gig workers (by analogy with the approaches developed in the legislation and practice of Indonesia and Japan); improving the conceptual framework of the Russian labor legislation (participant in collective bargaining, parties to a collective agreement, representatives employees and employers, etc.).

Scientific novelty: for the first time in the science of labor law, a conceptual idea was expressed to expand the scope of Russian labor law in terms of regulating the collective labor rights of gig workers and to endow them with the right to join trade unions, conduct collective bargaining, and eventually conclude collective agreements with operators or partners of digital labor platforms.

Practical significance: the formulated proposals are aimed at improving the Russian Labor Code, the Federal Law “On trade unions, their rights and performance guarantees”, and other regulatory legal acts regarding the expansion of collective labor rights of gig workers.

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