One of the greatest values of the Foundation for Digital Sustainability lies in the fact that people of great value, both human and professional, have been and are concentrated around it. People who have gathered around an idea, a mission, a vision of the world that – often in a path not without its difficulties – they are committed to pursuing. Sometimes, given the nature of their work, the fruit of this commitment is transformed into quality texts and scientific production. In the new course of Tech Economy 2030, we have set ourselves the goal of ‘telling the story’ of the Foundation. This also means telling the story of its members. One of the best ways to do this is to start with what they do, what they produce and what they write relating to our topics.
I begin this story, therefore, with the latest editorial effort by Lara Lazzeroni, for almost three years now the representative of the University of Siena in our Scientific Committee, a qualified professor of labour law and associate professor at the Department of Law.
The book Corporate Social Responsibility 2.0 and Digital Sustainability. A Labour Law Reading is an important work for understanding the intersection between digital sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and labour law.
The book introduces an innovative interpretative framework, analysing the transformations imposed by Artificial Intelligence, decision-making algorithms and digital platforms on the world of work. Its analysis leads to five fundamental lessons, which outline the future of labour regulation and corporate governance in the digital age.
1. CSR 2.0: From Corporate Social Responsibility to Digital Governance
The traditional concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) centred on the voluntariness of companies in pursuing social and environmental objectives beyond pure profit maximisation. However, the CSR 2.0 described by Lazzeroni takes the form of an obligatory governance model, in which digital sustainability and the protection of fundamental rights become structural elements of corporate management.
Implications for Labour Law:
1. Regulatory Diligence: companies must integrate sustainability criteria into their business models to meet the new due diligence and compliance standards imposed by the EU.
2. Reputational and legal risks: companies that do not adopt an authentic and measurable CSR risk sanctions, reputational damage and restrictions in regulated markets.
3. Regulation and co-regulation: Europe is moving CSR from a voluntary model to a regulatory framework that imposes clear constraints on digitised companies.
This development means that labour law will have to adapt to ensure that corporate social responsibility is not merely a marketing strategy, but a structural element of the legal regulation of the labour market.
Lesson Learned? CSR is no longer optional, but an integrated regulatory paradigm
2. Digitisation and Work: The Governance of Algorithms
Artificial Intelligence and decision-making algorithms are radically transforming how workers are selected, evaluated and managed. Lazzeroni points out that ethical principles must be applied to algorithms, making this an important element in the regulation of digital labour (but no: let’s not call it algoretic!).
Implications for Labour Law:
1. Algorithmic transparency: companies must ensure that automated decision-making systems are understandable and verifiable.
2. Human oversight of algorithms: Mechanisms for human oversight of decisions made by AI must be provided, to avoid discrimination and systemic bias.
3. Responsibilityand accountability: Responsibility for business decisions cannot be offloaded onto algorithms, but must remain with employers.
Regulatory developments will therefore have to ensure that the use of algorithms does not become an instrument of opaque decision-making, but a support for fair and sustainable labour management.
Lesson Learned: Governance of algorithms must complement labour law to ensure fairness and transparency
3. Smart Working and the Redefinition of Time and Work Space
Digital work has dissolved the traditional boundaries between working time and free time, leading to new challenges for labour regulation. Lazzeroni highlights how smart working and remote working have multiplied opportunities for workers, but also created risks in terms of control, surveillance and the right to disconnect.
Implications for Labour Law:
1. Protection of work-life balance: Clear regulations must be defined to avoid the phenomenon of digital burnout.
2. Regulation of digital surveillance: The use of remote monitoring tools must not violate workers’ privacy.
3. New contractual forms: labour law must adapt to the increasing spread of unstructured working arrangements, while still guaranteeing effective protections for digital workers.
Lesson Learned: Work is no longer bound to physical locations, but (also because of this) requires new legal protections
4. Digital Sustainability between Soft Law and Hard Law
The legal framework on digital sustainability moves between soft law (codes of conduct, guidelines) and hard law (binding rules). Lazzeroni highlights how labour law must integrate both approaches to ensure fairness and protection for workers.
Implications for Labour Law:
1. Adaptation of companies: Companies have to comply with new European standards, such as the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act.
2. Certification of sustainability: ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) rating systems will become increasingly relevant in the regulation of digital work.
3. Balance between business freedom and workers’ rights: Regulation must avoid stifling innovation, but also prevent predatory practices in the digital labour market.
Lesson Learned: Regulation of digital sustainability must balance flexibility and binding obligations
5. The Trade Union’s Role in the Bargaining of Algorithms
Lazzeroni emphasises that the trade union’s role must adapt to the digital transformation, negotiating not only wages and working conditions, but also the algorithms that regulate the labour market.
Implications for Labour Law:
1. New forms of collective bargaining: Need for agreements regulating digital platforms.
2. Protection of digital workers: Creation of minimum standards for platform and crowdworking workers.
3. Negotiating the use of AI in business: Defining clear limits for the automation of work decisions.
Lesson Learned: Trade unions must evolve to negotiate rights in the digital economy
Towards New Paradigms for Digital Work
Lazzeroni’s book is an essential contribution to rethinking labour law in the digital age, offering an innovative regulatory framework to meet the challenges of the future. The author highlights how digitalisation should not simply be suffered by institutions and companies, but governed through a balanced regulation that guarantees both technological innovation and the protection of workers’ rights. Inclusive and responsible governance is needed, which goes beyond the logic of pure economic efficiency and introduces principles of fairness, transparency and sustainability in the digital labour market. The future of labour law will depend on the ability to integrate these values in a context increasingly permeated by technologies, ensuring that they are instruments of emancipation and not of precarisation. The latest actions of BigTech in this direction are by no means reassuring, and there is much to be done.
