The provision of services through digital platforms in Nicaragua
It is a reality that labor relations have been becoming more flexible and significant changes have been introduced in the hiring processes and in the execution of work, the justification for which lies mainly in the adaptation to the new needs of the production processes and the socioeconomic reality of each moment.
New technologies, globalization and the current health situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic are some of the contextual factors that characterize the atypical new forms of labor recruitment.
The work, through digital platforms has generated new forms of flexible employment, however, in most cases does not guarantee labor rights.
Currently, there are many companies that develop their business through digital platforms that require employees to provide their services, an example of this is: Hugo at regional level and we have cases such as Uber, Globo, and others more at international level.
Within international organizations such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and in most countries, there is an intense legal and doctrinal debate on the need to regulate the services provided through digital platforms, to try to guarantee the worker a decent job and adequate social protection.
In this regard, countries such as the United Kingdom, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile are already addressing this type of problem; they have been seeking ways to respond by creating precedents through rulings and, in the most advanced cases, through proposed legislation.
In Nicaragua, it is already a fact that there are a number of atypical contracts that have been developing such as part-time, home work, even teleworking as a result of the global health situation, but that are not regulated as such in the Labor Courts.
This new social and economic reality more than an opportunity represents a need, which should be taken advantage of to reform our Labor Code dating back to 1996, which has not undergone any significant reform in the substantive part, which although it is true that the gaps it presents have been filled with judicial criteria that have been established through judgments since 2013, with the creation of the National Labor Court.
Valeska Fonseca Torrez
Associate
García & Bodán
Nicaragua