THE ALGORITHMIC "ASSEMBLY" OF THE RESERVE ARMY: DIGITAL SUBORDINATION AND THE STF DEBATE ON EMPLOYMENT TIES IN PLATFORM WORK

Abstract

This article provides a critical and up-to-date bibliographic review of the phenomenon of work uberization, focusing on the ongoing debate at the Brazilian Supreme Court regarding the existence of an employment relationship. Starting from the analysis of the famous statement "Uber is like a cookie, one leaves and eight come in," made during a Supreme Court session, the work articulates the Marxist concept of the "industrial reserve army" with the contemporary legal notion of "algorithmic subordination." The methodology involves the analysis of primary sources and secondary sources. The objective is to demonstrate that, far from representing mere autonomy, the platform-worker relationship is characterized by a disguised and structural subordination, which serves the logic of flexible accumulation in platform capitalism. The conclusion is that the Supreme Court must recognize the possibility of an employment relationship, ensuring the real subsumption of labor to digital capital without absolute precarization.