This paper examines how intermittent work, increasingly facilitated by digital platforms, affects pay and contributes to in-work poverty. Using platform work as a model, it explores whether current legal frameworks account for unpaid periods between tasks. The analysis concludes that the legal system is ill-equipped to protect workers in fragmented employment and proposes reforms to better address the challenges of intermittent, technology-mediated labour.

This paper outlines the framework of a research project on “timeless” work. This concept refers to work arrangements in which the duration or temporal allocation of job performance is either not predetermined or is left to the worker’s discretion. The purpose of the research is to highlight how time may continue to constitute a significant variable, worthy of thorough examination, even in contexts where workers exercise substantial autonomy over the duration of their job performance.

This report provides an initial overview of the collective bargaining regulation of “timeless” work. A cross-sectoral analysis was conducted on a range of national and company-level collective agreements, covering employment, para-subordination and self-employment. The report shows that, notwithstanding references to flexible arrangements, time continues to play a decisive role in both work organisation and remuneration, with few exceptions.

After briefly reviewing the theories on the distinction between obligations of means and obligations of result and identifying the object of the employee’s obligation and the parameters for its performance, the Author focuses on the issues arising from the interaction between new organisational models of the enterprise—shaped by new technologies—and the content of the employment obligation.

This paper presents the special issue on “time-less work” published in the Journal “Diritto della sicurezza sul lavoro”

The essay examines work-related injuries involving workers without fixed hours or workplaces, tracing the evolution of their legal interpretation. It highlights the implications for compulsory insurance and the boundary between occupational and non-occupational protection.

The essay explores how working time contributes to occupational diseases, offering a social-security interpretation of Article 17(5) of Legislative Decree No. 66/2003. It highlights working time as a specific risk factor—especially for “timeless workers”—emphasising health surveillance, prevention, and the relevance of quantifying hours, with a focus on smart working.

The essay examines working time as a safeguard of health and dignity in flexible, digitalised labour contexts, focusing on time-less workers and framing time as a key risk factor and social resource. It highlights prevention, worker participation, and collective bargaining as tools to manage flexibility while promoting an inclusive evolution of occupational safety law.

This open-access book – edited by Professors Leccese and Carinci – collects all the essays and contributions published within the project  “‘Time-less’ Workers? Legal Challenges in Work Activities Managed by Objectives and Without Scheduled Working Hours”