INTERFACE BETWEEN HUMAN RIGHTS AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE SHARING ECONOMY: THE CASE OF UBER

Abstract

Currently, society is living in the digital age, the information regime coming from the Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4.0, which has driven the expansion of digital work platforms, leveraged by technologies such as high-speed internet, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data and advanced algorithms. In this regard, uberized work emerges, characterized by the absence of a formal employment relationship, with long and unpredictable working hours. In addition, there is no guarantee of a minimum payment and the contribution to the social protection system is individualized and uncertain. Despite the long working hours, overtime is not paid, nor is paid weekly rest, vacations or the corresponding constitutional third ensured. This is a situation of instability that has a direct impact on the human rights of workers, given the precariousness and intensification of work, including without the possibility of direct contact with the application, so that the worker is often the target of blocking and cancellation without the right to defense or explanations. Thus, this article proposed to investigate whether Uber, within the sharing economy, guarantees the human rights and good working conditions of its drivers, while maintaining economic viability and contributing to economic sustainability. Thus, it started from the following problem: does Uber, within the sharing economy, guarantee the human rights and working conditions of drivers, while maintaining economic viability and contributing to sustainability? In fact, the sharing economy emerges as a driving force for sustainable socioeconomic development, given the changes in consumption perspectives, now based on possession, and not on property. Therefore, it is clear that Uber meets the issue of sustainability, however it needs to guarantee minimum rights of workers based on the proper regulation, fitting them into a category called self-employed app worker, with minimum rights and guarantees, considering that every human being has the right to fair and favorable working conditions and protection against unemployment.