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 theories on the distinction between obligations of means and of result, and clarifying the object of the worker’s obligation and the parameters for assessing compliance, the author examines the challenges posed by the interaction between new technology-driven organisational models and the scope of the worker’s duty of diligence.