Emerging threats and opportunities for collective labour rights in the digital age – The Spanish Case

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (hereinafter, ICTs) open new opportunities for collective labour rights but they also are a source of emerging threats. On the one hand, ICTs can develop a role in the renewal of collective activism exceeding increasingly more flexible and dispersed production structures. Beyond corporations, social networks open new collaborative spaces to trade unions and other organizations as NGOs, consumers’ organizations or neighbourhood associations. These links may enable a coordinated actuation, transmitting information about the conflict, labour claims, and calling for demonstrations, as a complement or instead of going on strike. However, on the other hand, ICTs allow the continuity of production process and, thereby, reduce or void the effectiveness of traditional forms of expression of conflict as the strike. Companies can develop a sort of a virtual strike-break activity as Spanish Courts have recognized. This paper is intended to be an approach, from a legal point of view and considering the Spanish case as a reference, to possibilities and threats that ICTs offer to unions and workers to reinforce social rights in the current recessionary scenario.