The Impact of Digitalization Processes on the System of Legal Regulation of Labor Relations

Abstract

This article examines how digitalization is transforming the system of legal regulation of labor relations, using Uzbekistan's labor legislation as a central case alongside comparative evidence from Russia, the European Union, France, Belgium, and the United States. Digitalization has produced two distinct forms of digital labor relations: the use of individual digital tools within otherwise traditional employment, such as electronic labor records, and the emergence of entirely new employment forms, such as remote work and platform-based work through applications like Uber and Yandex Taxi. Using doctrinal and comparative legal analysis, the study shows that while remote work has been progressively codified, platform work continues to erode traditional criteria of subordination, leaving courts and regulators divided over whether platform workers are employees. The article evaluates Uzbekistan's self-employment regime and sectoral measures and proposes reforms to close the resulting protection gaps.