On the hunt for the false self-employed: improving inspectorial action against fraud and financial stress in the Social Security

Abstract

The necessary, and increasingly urgent, modernization of labor relations involves the adaptation of its legal regime to the digital transformation of our era. And in this intense and extensive process, in constant boiling and transition, it is already clear that the borders, always diffuse («gray»), between subordinate work and autonomous work, are increasingly liquid. One area that is especially responsible for this growing dilution is the one related to the «digital platform economy», but it is not the only one, insofar as other whole economic sectors, both traditional (meat, for example) and modern (low airlines cost, like Ryanair), show analogous tendencies (Judgment of the Court of the Social n. 1 of Tenerife of September 7, 2018, resources 164/2017).
The complexity of all this, and the need for legislative reforms, as well as new conventional experiences (collective regulations), give good proof of the recent regulatory initiatives in various
European countries (Italy, France, Denmark, etc.). It deals with both reducing the extreme conflict that is unfolding at this time in this regard as to promote greater legal security for users, workers and, of course, for companies. The insecurity and equivocity of the situation would be illustrated by the proliferation of judicial rulings, in all European countries, including now also Spain, which had maintained a certain critical «interpretative unity», which do not reach the same conclusion (Judgment of the Social Court n. 39 of Madrid, 284/2018, of September 3). Well, in Spain, the Government, instead of promoting appropriate initiatives that are up to the magnitude of the problem, has preferred to make a small reform of a regulatory nature and procedural sense (Royal Decree 997/2018, of August 3), in order to facilitate that the «superior body of labor police», the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate, can clear up any obstacles that may arise in its wake to bring out the «false self-employed workers». This would not only improve the anti-fraud figures, but would also alleviate, even slightly, the «financial stress» of the Social Security system, which in these days is also in serious or very acute condition.
Of all this, fascinating, still confused and unstable, current panorama of labor and social this analysis gives us account, formulating a critical chronicle of such movements. All this waiting for more certain normative, conventional and jurisprudential responses.