Name and Surname
Darko Božičić

Affiliation
Faculty of Law, University of Novi Sad

Contact email
darko.bozicic@gmail.com

 

Short Biography

Darko Božičić was born in 1989 in Novi Sad. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad in 2012. He completed his Master’s academic studies at the same faculty in 2014, defending his thesis on the topic “The Right to Collective Bargaining in International, European and Domestic Law and Practice.” He defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Realization and Protection of the Right to Work in the Digital Economy” in 2021 at his home faculty. He started his professional career in the banking sector, and has been working at the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad as an associate at the Department of Labor Law since 2013.

 

Research abstract

Information technologies have fundamentally changed the ways in which we live and work. Digital platforms, as one of the main products of information technology, have had a significant influence on almost all aspects of social life. Platforms essentially have the effect of a kind of catalyst for the realization of various social needs, where today, for almost every social need, there is a platform that combines supply and demand to satisfy a specific need. The exception, of course, is not even the need for work, where digital platforms actually act as a virtual labor market. In such a market, the matching of subjects who need certain jobs performed and subjects who need to find a job (digital workers) is done using the platform’s algorithm. These algorithms function on the basis of a huge amount of different data that the platform collects from the moment of its users registration, through the very process of performing work through the platform, to the evaluation of the performed work, thus taking over numerous functions of the employer (algorithmic management). While the platforms present the functioning of their algorithms in a positive light of the contribution they make to automation and objectivity in the decision-making process, this research we will show that the statement made by the platforms is not entirely true because the functioning of their algorithm results in the absence of transparency and objectivity in the decision-making process which results in violating numerous rights regarding work. Moreover, this research project aims to formulate concrete proposals for necessary changes in the legal framework in order to effectively protect fundamental human rights due to the actions of algorithmic management.