The replacement of striking workers by technological means

Abstract

Information and communication technology is having a crucial influence in the labour relationships both in the individual and in the collective field. From this last perspective, one of the fields in which the impact of technological advances is expressing with special intensity is in the right to strike. Specifically, one of the main challenges that they are posing is the substitution of the striking employees by technical means, which has been referred to as technological strikebreaking. With these premises, this work deals with the underlying problems of this type of practices, from the obsolescence of the regulation of the right to strike in our legal system and its adaptation to the new social realities, as well as the judicial decisions that have pronounced on this question so far. The purpose is to make proposals that can contribute to solve the interpretative problems that arise in these cases.