NEW TYPES OF WORK AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Miroslava Knapková
Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University, Tajovského 10, 975 90  Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
​​​​DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/EMAN.2018.479
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2nd International Scientific Conference – EMAN 2018 – Economics and Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times, Ljubljana – Slovenia, March 22, 2018, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia; Faculty of Management Koper, Slovenia; Doba Business School – Maribor, Slovenia; Integrated Business Faculty –  Skopje, Macedonia; Faculty of Management – Zajecar, Serbia, ISBN 978-86-80194-11-0

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Abstract​

Adult human beings spend more than half of their lives by performing work. Many economists focus on different aspects of the labour market and its conditions and we can find various contributions mostly regarding traditional dependent work performed by employee for employer under the employment contract.
The aim of this article is to provide an overview of new kinds of work that could be performed by individual persons (natural persons) or eventually artificial creature (intelligent non-human creature) and which are developing and spreading because of the technological development. This article is based on the theoretical and empirical economic and legal studies and official legal acts of the member state of European Union (if applicable). According to the available legal definitions, and theoretical and empirical works, I distinguish between the traditional forms of work (categories of work, which are standardly regulated by the labour law or business law in most of the European countries), and new forms of work (they are either not legally regulated or they are partly regulated only in few countries and they exist or may exist in the future because of the technological development). Traditional forms of work are all kinds of paid work, including dependent work (all kinds of employment contracts, such as part-time work, full-time work, working contract for the definite period, working contract for the indefinite period, homework, telework), independent self-employed work, work performed according to the business law contracts (such as contract with a commission agent, mandate contract, managerial contract, contract on the manager director function in the private limited company), and work performed according to the civil law contracts (such as contract of intermediation). Traditional forms of work include also all forms of unpaid work (performed in households by husband and wife, by children, or other household´s members, as well as work performed within the neighbourhood relationships, and volunteer work). Illegal work belongs also to the traditional forms of work. In the current digital economy and society, new forms of work will be increasingly common. Atypical (new) forms of the work are linked with different changes on the labour market. As new forms of work I consider economically dependent self-employment, “crowd work” and “work-on-demand via apps”, which are typical for so-called gig-economy, as well as work performed by artificial creatures. Based on the analysis of more than hundred legal acts from the labour law area of all European Union member states, theoretical and empirical contributions, I tried to sum up legally used definitions and empirical descriptions of unusual (new) types of work. Knowing the changes on the labour market, including an interest of individuals to offer their labour force in new, unusual forms, gives business leaders an overview of new forms of work and provides them a basis for strategic decisions on the company´s employment policy.

Key words

Work, Economically dependent self-employment, Crowd work, Work-on-demand via app, Artificial creature.
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