Social Security and the New Digital Work Relationships: A Contribution to New Forms of Sustainability for the Social Security System

ABSTRACT The sustainability of social security is an (almost) embryonic concern in social-security law. Talking about social security leads us, without much delay, to consider the concern that societies have about the financial sustainability of their social-security systems. And to the problems that already exist, a new ingredient has been added that puts the current system in crisis and leads us to rethink the forms of financing and the measures that should be adopted to respond to these new realities that derive from digitalization and the automation of procedures. Especially when they lead to a reduction in jobs and, consequently, a reduction in the revenue derived from the contributions that workers and employers pay into the social-security system.

KEYWORDS Tax – Contributions to social security – Sustainability – Digitalization –Work automation

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction. – 2. The idea of social security. – 3. The sustainability of social security. – 4. The (new) problems and challenges of social-security sustainability. - 4.1.Introduction. – 4.2. Measures for Social Security and its sustainability. - 4.2.1. Measures to increase social-security contributions in the event of job losses due to the digital transformation of companies. – 4.2.2. Long-term measures: special contributions for companies laying off workers as a result of the automation of work processes. – 5. Conclusions