Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales (ISSN 1131-8635, ISSN-e 1988-2572) is a six-monthly journal that publishes articles on matters related to work, employment and labour relations with a multidisciplinary approach that covers Sociology, Law, Anthropology, Philosophy, Economics and Psychology. It aims to disseminate original studies that combine a high academic level with a simple style. It deals with labour relations issues in a broad sense, including social transformations of work and employment, gender relations and social policies of all types. Each issue comprises a section that deals with a specific topic, another that includes miscellaneous items, and finally a book review.
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
Digitalization, Platformization and Automation of Work in Domestic Employment in Argentina
The article empirically characterizes labor trends linked to digital technologies (DT) in domestic work and care tasks in Argentina: digitalization, platformization, and automation. Methodologically, it draws on a 2023 survey of domestic workers with profiles on Zolvers, the main job-intermediation platform in the sector, as well as secondary sources from the Argentine Permanent Household Survey (EPH). Among the findings, there is extensive digitalization in the occupation, in both work and leisure time, and a notable relevance of these processes for income generation. Platformization appears associated with worse conditions compared to non-mediated jobs, particularly due to lower earnings. The study also observes current automation of various manual and routine tasks, along with the perception that future automation would be detrimental. Nonetheless, occupation-level automation is considered largely unlikely in the short term.
Copyright (c) 2026 Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales
Understanding technology-facilitated gender-based violence in digital labour platforms
Digital labour platforms continue to expand across the globe. In a similar trajectory, the overall number of people earning a livelihood from the platforms continues to rise. Nevertheless, the standard image of a gig worker in people's imaginations remains a young, single male who works part-time on delivery or ride-hailing platforms. Fairwork's research in almost 40 countries across the 5 continents shows that this is not the case. This paper's contribution aims to shed light on women and LGBTQI+ people's experiences when dealing with technology-facilitated gender-based violence enabled by location-based platforms. It will draw on qualitative data to explore how gender norms and gender-based violence seep into otherwise assumed neutral technologies. It will particularly focus on workers’ lived experiences in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, all member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur by its Spanish acronym) and reflect on the need for a concerted regional regulatory effort to address the problem of technology-facilitated gender-based violence in the platform economy.
Union resistance in multinational agro-exporting companies in the Global South
This article analyzes the strategies developed by the Sindicato de Obreros y Empleados Aceiteros de Rosario (SOEAR) in Argentina’s agro-export sector, a highly concentrated industry dominated by multinational corporations. The aim is to explain how this union managed to build a strategic position and accumulate power within a context shaped by the globalization of production and the financialization of capital, processes that acquire specific characteristics in emerging economies of the Global South. Methodologically, the study combines secondary quantitative data to characterize the sector with primary qualitative evidence obtained through interviews with workers and union leaders, field observations, and analysis of union documents. The findings show that the consolidation of union power occurred through different phases of organizational accumulation, including the recovery of rank-and-file participation, the contestation of leadership within the national federation, significant wage gains, and the institutionalization of workplace health and safety mechanisms.
Argentina in the 21st Century: Labor Relations and the Breakdown of the Employment Regime
The article analyzes the transformation of the labor relations regime in contemporary Argentina following the reforms implemented since December 2023, with particular attention to the Ley Bases and its complementary regulations. The paper details the regulatory changes across five strategic areas (probationary period, interference in collective bargaining, severance pay regime, weakening of the primacy of reality, new forms of employment contracts, and proposed pension system reforms). It concludes that these reforms represent a turning point in the structure of Argentina’s labor market, producing regressive effects on employment stability and social protection, and highlighting the need to maintain a critical perspective that links economic development with decent and equitable work
Employment Conditions and Labor Vulnerability of Migrant Agricultural Workers in Spain: An Analysis from a Professional Perspective
This article analyzes the perspectives of key informants in the social, labor, and healthcare sectors on the contractual conditions of migrant agricultural workers in Spain. In 2021, 87 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 92 experts, focusing on recruitment from the country of origin, fixed-discontinuous contracts, and the use of Temporary Employment Agencies (TEAs). The findings show that these hiring modalities do not mitigate labor precariousness but rather reinforce the economic and social vulnerability of workers. The study identifies deeply unbalanced labor relations, where the power of employers, supported by their economic and political influence, enables the imposition of abusive conditions, non-compliance with collective agreements, and restricted access to labor rights. From a labor relations and public policy perspective, the study calls for a reassessment of current hiring models and the strengthening of regulatory mechanisms to ensure greater stability and social protection for migrant agricultural workers.
Technologies of control, algorithmic governance, and the production of meanings of work: the interface of the Workana platform
The interfaces of labor platforms are business-oriented sociotechnical architectures that encode corporate meanings and interests, shape users’ work experience, determine their interaction with each other and with clients, and implement forms of management and discipline through algorithmic control and gamification. In this article, we analyze the case of Workana, an Argentine-owned freelance and remote work platform. Elements such as how the platform is visually presented to users through design, the structuring of user profiles, and the project posting tools —all backed by the opaque documentation of the Terms and Conditions and Site Policies— contribute to reproducing the logics of autonomy, competition, meritocracy, and hyper-individualization characteristic of platform capitalism.
Co-determination and industrial democracy. Tribute to Walther Müller-Jentsch
A reflection on the work and life of the recently deceased great German sociologist Walther Müller-Jentsch serves to revisit the main debates about industrial relations from World War II to the present and clarify the nature of this subdiscipline as a dynamic set of institutions and social relations. Industrial relations are not a system or a structure, much less a set of rational decisions, but rather a complex of interests and actors in constant conflict and evolution. Basic concepts developed by Müller-Jentsch, such as conflict partnership (Konfliktpartnerschaft), co-determination, industrial citizenship, and economic democracy, reflect this dynamic and conflictual nature in the debates of sociology of work. Analyzing labor relations thus implies analyzing society in its development and its structuring conflicts.
Trade Unionism and Social Dialogue in Brazil and Spain in the 21st Century
This article analyses the scope and limitations of the social dialogue strategy adopted by Brazilian and Spanish trade unionism in the 21st century. It does so by focusing on the relationship between the most representative trade union organisations in Spain (Comisiones Obreras, CCOO, and Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) and in Brazil (Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT)) and governments. It argues that, faced with the decline in job quality, the trade union movement has responded with a type of social dialogue, making conflict a last resort, without managing to reverse the spread of precariousness in its new forms.
Cette, G.; Groux, G. y Robert, R. (2026). Sauver la démocratie sociale. París: Calmann-Lévy, 220 páginas
Gil, Ana Paula (2024). Quem cuidará de mim? Problemáticas em torno dos cuidados (in)formais. Lisboa: Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, 111 páginas.
E-commerce logistics workers: subalternity or vanguard of the workers’ movement in platform capitalism. The case of the Rotterdam port region
In this text we study the forms of collective bargaining in the e-commerce logistics sector in the Netherlands, taken as an analyzer of the possibilities and limits of the new forms of resistance in the so-called platform capitalism. We identify three characteristic forms of articulation of labor relations after the mutation of traditional bargaining models based on the establishment of norms of general effectiveness through representative class unions: the model of certifications; the judicialization of labor relations; and direct action. These different bargaining repertoires correspond to different positions in the production process, together with the different ethnic-migrant condition of the employees. This division has led to a continuous loss of standards of conditions for the whole. Finally, possible ways of rearticulating collective action to reverse this process are proposed.
A choke point in the making? Labour conflict, trade unionism and production of scale in Amazon warehouses
The goal of this article is to analyse the construction of scales in union activity. For this purpose, the case of Amazon is studied. This company has built a network of logistics centres and warehouses in Spain to organize the distribution of products following a system that combines economy of scale, the use of technologies and automation in the supply chain, the outsourcing of door-to-door delivery, and the use of inventory management and work organization methods based on the just-in-time model. The result of this model is a highly conflictive labour context in which union action has been developing at different scales. Based on interviews with 19 workers and trade unionists from different organizations and workplaces, and focusing on the structures of worker representation, collective bargaining and union action, the spatial agency of workers in their attempt to make a choke point in the logistics chain The articles concludes that choke points are no given spatial entities, derived exclusively from the technical organisation of the circulation of commodities, but they require, in addition, associative power that manifests through workers’ agency at multiple scales. In addition, the scales of action of trade unions are neither unique nor fixed, but are socially constructed, and, as such, multiple and changing based on the dialectical relationship between capital and labour.
Multiescalaridad y poder territorial como ejes de renovación en el sindicalismo portuario: el caso del Puerto Bahía de Algeciras
This article examines a case of trade union renewal in the Spanish port sector through the lens of labour geography. Drawing on qualitative interviews, document analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2024, it explores the spatial strategies employed by the Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores del Mar—a notable example of successful trade union revitalisation that has achieved substantial representativeness across Spanish ports. The analysis identifies two central dynamics in this process: the deployment of multi-scalar practices and the construction of territorial trade union power. This territorial power is built upon five key pillars: organisational horizontality, a proactive stance toward labour conflict, task-specific skill development, union control, and the fostering of intra-port solidarity. Understanding these vectors of renewal offers valuable insights into both the limitations and possibilities of trade union revitalisation beyond the maritime sector
The interweaving of Trade Union and financial spatialities in rider platforms in Spain
Delivery platforms relying on rider labor have attracted the attention of financial actors who play a crucial role in shaping the business models, with consequences on scale, conditions, and fixing of the workforce that pose a challenge to Union action. This article examines from a spatial perspective the interplay between the finance of the three dominant platforms in Spain ―Glovo, Just Eat Takeaway, and Uber Eats― and labor unions, employing qualitative interviews and documentary analysis. The Rider Law recognized the employee status of rider which, after a first intervention by community unionism, predicted the consolidation of representative unionism. However, this consolidation was truncated by the platforms’ circumvention of the law, facilitated by investment strategies. The simultaneous efforts of workers, unions, and the government, coupled with the diminishing returns of investment, are countering this challenge by slowly dismantling representative unionism.
Socio-spatial analysis of the experience of work among riders: the case of Getir in Seville
The main objective of this paper is to offer a socio-spatial analysis of the work experience among riders, taking into account the organizational and technological transformations that characterize the current state of last-mile delivery. To this end, empirical data are provided, collected through ethnographic fieldwork based on a triangulation of participant observation, in-depth interviews, and systematic documentary analysis using bibliography, maps, and supporting audiovisual material. The results corroborate the central role of algorithm-based technological applications in the organization of work within the sector, as well as the decisive impact of the Rider Law on working conditions. Additionally, it also highlights the need to consider the existence of different types of platforms, and the differences that these project on work experiences.
Strike and counter-power unionism in a logistics company
This article analyzes an experience of successful union organization and strike at a logistics distribution center for supermarkets, led by a highly precarious workforce, migrant and racialized. Against narratives that present these sectors as disorganized or difficult to mobilize, the case demonstrates that it is possible to articulate an effective counter-power strategy if the concrete reality of the worker collective is recognized, appropriate union resources are activated, and the structural conditions of the company are leveraged. The strike was strategically deployed at a critical moment in the production calendar –the Christmas season– affecting a key “chokepoint” in the flow of goods. This action not only achieved material gains but also strengthened the internal cohesion and bargaining power of the collective. Through the analysis of this conflict, the article advocates for a political conception of unionism, focused on power accumulation from below, and proposes rethinking the role of unions in contexts of labor segmentation and capitalist reorganization, particularly in logistics sectors where workers’ structural power can be reactivated..
Work and trade unionism in the logistics chain: Socio-spatial approaches
This monographic issue aims to contribute to the debate on trade union action in logistics chains, focusing on how specific working contexts—marked by socio-technical systems, position in the logistics chain, labour regulation systems and the existence of trade union traditions—influence the formation of particular forms of spatial agency among workers (Herod, 2001; Strauss, 2020; Roca, 2020). The articles use conceptual tools from different disciplinary fields, such as the sociology of work, political economy, social anthropology and labour geography, to study work processes and conflicts in three key nodes of the logistics chain: warehouses, ports and distribution. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of work and conflict in logistics chains, applying a perspective focused on socio-spatial relations and sensitive to the specificities of geographical contexts. The six articles move along the supply chain, from ports to warehouses and finally to delivery drivers.
Neighbourhood support and individual and neighbourhood characteristics. Case study in Granada
Numerous qualitative studies highlight the importance of neighbourhood support in our lives. However, quantifying these practices is complicated by the lack of specific sources. This article examines how this support is articulated and its relationship with the characteristics of the people and the places where they live, using a survey of the Institute for Regional Development in the metropolitan area of Granada (2008) and logistic regression models. Factors that explain the frequency of interaction and support among neighbours are analysed, as well as the determinants of social isolation and high integration in the neighbourhood. The results show that both individual and neighbourhood variables are significant and contribute differentially to the explanation of these phenomena. In addition, distinct spatial patterns are observed, with working-class areas and municipalities in the metropolitan crown showing greater neighbourhood connectedness than other areas of the capital.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales
The feminization of digital labor and the proliferation of domestic and care platforms
Platformization has brought significant changes to the configurations of social reproduction—a phenomenon we examine in relation to the domestic and care work sector in Spain. Drawing on an interdisciplinary qualitative approach, we analyze various digital platforms that mediate reproductive tasks, identifying key transformations within a sector historically characterized by feminization, racialization, and precarity. We argue that these platforms are not merely technological innovations but play a central role in the contemporary reorganization of domestic labor, functioning as mechanisms of "re-commodification" within a broader crisis of reproduction. Their expansion in the Spanish context has been shaped by the familistic nature of the welfare regime, the migrant outsourcing of reproductive labor, and hybridization with pre-existing informal intermediation practices.
Fairness in the Latin American platform economy: Assessing labor conditions on digital labor platforms
The platform economy, particularly digital labor platforms, has experienced significant growth in Latin American countries. These platforms, which facilitate specific labor relations known as platform work (Aloisi and De Stefano, 2022), have seen a substantial increase in user registrations. A survey (Alvarez et al, 2020) estimated that 16% of the population is registered on these platforms, with 9.4% reporting the provision of services through them. This phenomenon was further accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (Katz et al, 2020; Arreaza et al., 2021), underscoring the growing importance of these platforms in the region. These companies operate in various sectors, including ride-hailing, delivery, and cleaning and care (Griguera and Nava, 2021). The literature has increasingly shedding light on the region (Miguez, 2023; Huepe, 2023) and specific countries such as Chile (Morris, 2021), Brazil (Rebechi et al., 2023), Argentina (Haidar and Garavaglia, 2022), Colombia (Maldonado and Sánchez, 2020), and Mexico (Ortega Herreguerena, 2023). Among the growing body of literature, a key aspect that has been consistently highlighted is the precarious conditions posed by digital labor platforms in the region (Hidalgo et al., 2020; Bridi et al., 2023). This paper takes a unique approach in its analysis of the situation of platform work in Latin America, drawing from studies conducted by the Fairwork Project. The project assessed fairness in the platform economy against five principles: pay, conditions, contracts, management and representation (Graham et al., 2020). The methodological framework involves data collected from publicly available sources, surveys with workers and interviews with platform managers (Heeks et al., 2021). From 2020 until 2024, the project has assessed over x platforms in nine countries. The findings reveal how digital labor platforms in the region engineer relations are characterised by low pay, poor health and safety protections, surveillance and unfair decisions in algorithmic management and barriers to workers’ representation.
Employer protection unionism in Atento call centers in Mexico and El Salvador (2008-2014)
This article analyzes the role of Mexican employer protection unionism in the contention of labor struggles in the call center industry. I reconstruct two contemporary union drives at the Atento corporation: one in Mexico City, Mexico, and the other in the city of San Salvador, El Salvador, which took place between the years 2008 and 2014. Through qualitative research with primary and secondary sources, including interviews with worker and organizer participants, I trace the deployment of employer protection unionism from its native Mexico to Salvadoran territory, where it was adopted and implemented in order to crush the first call center union in the country. Highlighting the relationship between the regime of labor control and the prevailing relations of accumulation and regulation, I propose that while the literature identifies regimes of labor control by geographic scale or economic sector, this case allows for an analysis at the transnational level, by firm.
Homo aquaticus operarius in modern Atlantis: Floating cities as a solution to rising sea and ocean levels due to climate change
This paper reflects on the phenomenon of the creation of sustainable floating cities and the use of ships and residential mega-yachts as a response to rising sea and ocean levels as result of climate change. In this context, our hypothetical status as homos aquaticus operarius and the difficulties associated with living and working permanently on maritime installations of different kinds are analysed from a legal point of view.
Climate change in the blue economy sectors: the case of maritime transport and fisheries
In recent decades, the approach to the climate emergency has shifted from a land-based perspective, primarily focused on the green economy, towards an increasing emphasis on the role of seas and oceans as fundamental agents in global climate regulation. Within this emerging framework, it becomes particularly relevant to conduct an analysis of the impact that climate change has on blue economy sectors–especially those activities carried out on board merchant and fishing vessels–as well as the reciprocal impact that such maritime activities exert on climate change itself. This paper specifically examines the challenges posed by the ecological transition in these sectors of the blue economy from the perspective of Labour Law, with a focus on the effects of climate change on the living and working conditions of seafarers and fishers.
Climate change and working conditions in emergency and civil protection services
Climate change intensifies occupational risks in emergency and civil protection sectors, exposing workers to extreme weather, excessive heat, UV radiation, air pollution, and vector-borne diseases. These professionals, already facing demanding working conditions and physical and psychosocial hazards, now encounter aggravated challenges that demand urgent legal responses. Spain’s legal framework, though improved with measures like “paid climate leave” and mandatory emergency protocols, remains fragmented and inadequate. A comprehensive reform of labor and sector-specific legislation is needed to structurally incorporate climate-related risks into occupational safety systems. International experiences provide adaptable models. A just ecological transition must ensure safe, resilient, and dignified working conditions for frontline responders to climate crises, reinforcing the link between environmental sustainability, occupational health, and labor rights in the face of an increasingly unstable climate scenario.
Dismissal arising from the lack of adaptation to new technologies
Business modernization, driven by digitalization, automation, and the use of advanced technologies, has profoundly transformed organizational dynamics, increasing efficiency and productivity. However, this evolution has brought with it a troubling side effect: objective dismissals resulting from technological causes. This phenomenon not only leads to a labor landscape marked by uncertainty and adversity, but also exacerbates economic inequality and weakens social cohesion. This essay aims to highlight the need for a comprehensive and balanced analysis in assessing these dismissals—an analysis that goes beyond evaluating the individual worker's performance and incorporates the employer's responsibilities, as well as the constant dynamics of change inherent to technological implementation. The quality and depth of this reassessment will largely determine the solutions that regulatory frameworks and jurisprudence can provide to balance the implications of technological progress with social and labor justice.
Unemployment, labour precariousness and mental health
With the aim of contributing to the analysis of the socioeconomic consequences of the impact of unemployment and labour precariousness on mental health, this article briefly revises literature about harmful effects of unemployment and temporality on subjective wellness and illustrates these effects through an analysis of aggregate indicators. Thereby, we try to contrast the main results of academic literature changing the usual approach of the analysis (microeconomic and focused on just one territory) for another at country level, from aggregate indicators available in international statistical sources.
Labor experiences of digital platform workers in Chile: Freedom or precariousness?
This qualitative study examines the work experiences of digital platform workers in Chile, focusing on their perception of labor flexibility and the lack of labor rights, since this type of employment is recognized for its high levels of precariousness, informality, and absence of social protection. Through in-depth interviews, it is revealed that workers are aware of the absence of social security but value the flexibility in hours and the absence of traditional supervision that these applications offer. In general, those interviewed appreciate labor flexibility, but their decision to work on these platforms is based on specific economic needs, particularly in a context of high unemployment.
Emotional and material architectures of care: exploring the norms of feelings of women in great dependency situation in dirty work in car
The social organization of care is currently undergoing a profound restructuring. The changes affect both the assumptions about the meaning of care and the emotional rules and social practices that regulate how to care and be cared for, especially in relation to work considered culturally dirty. This research seeks to deepen in the experiences and material and emotional strategies of women with disabilities in a situation of great dependence in Andalusia and the Community of Madrid with great support needs. The experiences of these women related to the organization and provision of their care are analysed following a qualitative approach through Critical Discourse Analysis, paying special attention to the management of the aspects of care work that generate the greatest displeasure ("dirty work") and its social and emotional consequences. This paper shows the importance of including the norms of feeling and emotional strategies that are activated in the care of dirty work, in the analysis of the deep vulnerability faced by in the daily management of their needs, which derives from the insecurity of the institutional supports received.
Weaving collective action into the flexibility of cultural work. Recent labor struggles and conquests in Argentine audiovisual production
The article explores the potential of collective action within cultural sectors and its relationship with the flexibilisation and individualisation of work. It focuses on the Argentine audiovisual sector, analysing three key areas: the impact of trade union action on cultural public policies during the pandemic, the mobilisation of professional groups to improve working conditions on streaming platforms, and feminist activism advocating for a union allowance for pregnant workers in the film industry. Employing a qualitative approach, the article emphasises the role of trade unions and their connections with other forms of collective organisation in these mobilisation processes. These cases demonstrate how, even within a flexible and fragmented sectoral context in the cultural field, collective action –and trade union action in particular– are central to advancing labour rights and improving workers' conditions.
Giraud, Baptiste y Péllise, Jérôme (dir.) (2024). Le dialogue social sous contrôle. París: Presses Universitaires de France, 120 páginas.