Blockchain and the algorithm in the employment relationship

Technological evolution has been dramatically transforming labour law in recent years. The digitalization of production and the introduction of smart devices within traditional production models have had a considerable impact not only on the organization of work but also on the enhancement of the technological skills of employees. Recent years’ progress of scientific and technological research has indeed created increasingly refined forms of production and work organization, the aim of which is the implementation of efficiency and business results through the enhancement of workers' technological skills. An objective pursued through the rational organization of work within the company, but also and above all through the integration and, in several cases, the replacement of individual work with the work of the machines. Nowadays, in digital production systems, the organization of work is often entrusted to an algorithm, which supports the entire digital infrastructure, as in the blockchain system, and promotes disintermediation in the meeting between job demand and supply, identifying the worker most suited to carrying out the tasks required according to a digital recruitment mechanism, based on transparent and immutable data. And through smart contracts, moreover, it is possible to streamline the legal relationships on which the company is based to improve efficiency and simplify relations with workers, customers and suppliers. Aware of such changes, national governments are recently starting to introduce reforms to support the digitalisation of the production system, in order to prevent the apparatus of protection of the worker and industrial relations from being overwhelmed by the speed with which scientific innovation is shaping the work relationship. A change of perspective is therefore necessary as it moves from the urgency of bringing the worker's traditional protectionist vocation closer to the changes that digital technology today brings to working reality. Many questions are still unresolved and imply a reflection on the traditional ways of understanding labour law, but the diffusion of blockchain technology must be perceived as a chance for the creation of job opportunities that ensures the long-term sustainability of production processes while relieving the emergence of work that plagues labour markets through the creation of specific professionals figures and the effective protection of digital workers.