Sociology I / Work and the Gendered Labour Market
Practice question · Multiple choice

Spain legislated in 2021 to presume an employment relationship for delivery platform couriers. Why did the classification of those workers matter so much to sociologists of work?

Hints
  1. Ask what a worker gains and loses by being an employee rather than self-employed.
  2. The whole apparatus of labour protection is attached to a status, not to the work itself.
Show the answer

B. Employment status determines access to collective bargaining, social security, and protection

Why

A century of labour institutions — bargaining, contributions, unfair dismissal, working time — is attached to the employee category. Reclassifying work as self-employment removes all of it at once without changing what anyone actually does, which is why the boundary rather than the pay level became the site of the conflict.

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