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Abstract
This article examines whether Norwegian labour law contains a regulatory gap at the margins of regulated working life, focusing on the classification of workers in platform-mediated and other non-standard forms of work. The Norwegian labour-law model rests on a dual structure: statutory protection under the Working Environment Act (WEA) and collective regulation under the Labour Disputes Act (LDA). Access to both pillars depends on classification as an “employee”, making the boundary between employee and independent contractor decisive for both legal protection and collective voice. The growth of platform work challenges this binary framework. Platform-mediated work complicates the assessment, as control is often exercised through algorithmic management, digital monitoring and task allocation systems. Workers formally designated as self-employed may in practice be economically dependent on a single platform and lack genuine entrepreneurial autonomy, yet risk exclusion from statutory safeguards and collective agreements. Despite developments, the article identifies a potential structural misalignment. The presumption rule has been introduced only in the WEA, not in the LDA. As a result, the interpretation of “employee” in individual labour law may not automatically align with its application in the collective sphere. Given that the Norwegian model depends on the interaction between statutory protection and collective bargaining, divergence between these two domains risks undermining systemic coherence. The article concludes that closing this gap does not necessarily require the creation of new legal categories. Rather, it depends on consistent, purposive interpretation across individual and collective labour law and on institutional willingness to extend protection and voice to workers in evolving forms of dependency.
Keywords
Employment classification, Platform work, Presumption of employment, Collective bargaining, Regulatory gap.