Povertà lavorativa: l'approccio del decent work nel diritto euro-unitario

After having framed the phenomenon of in-work poverty, the essay analyzes decent work in the European legislation along three main directions, such as legal bases, defining elements and potential. In line with the predefined framework, the decent work is a concept that does not establish thresholds or ceilings for its contents, but guarantees minimum rights. It is a moving goal and an objective, whose universal foundation is to be found in the value of human dignity and work, which evolves over time and space together with social and economic transformation. Furthermore, this concept indicates an object and a scope of intervention which is broader than the employment relationship, which reflects better than traditional categories the ways in which work and business stand in the global economy and it is useful for suggesting the type of new regulation necessary for those involved in “informal” work or, according to the EU terminology, “undeclared”. The reference is, for example, to the digital forms of work, in which the risk of an incomplete or impaired recognition of the rights to decent work is among the highest.