When an algorithm values human labor at three euros, and a global corporation forces laid-off workers to train their successors, economics ceases to be the science of resource allocation. It becomes a study of survival in a world where the only constant is cost reduction.
The Architecture of Cheap Labor. The drive to maximize profit is taking forms that a decade ago would have been considered dystopian literary fiction. The prosecutor's office in Milan has uncovered a mechanism where technology serves to regress labor relations to the level of a nineteenth-century manor farm. The Italian branch of Deliveroo has been placed under judicial control.
This decision is not a routine administrative procedure. Investigators determined that as many as 20,000 couriers worked in a system that violated basic dignity. The delivery rate was 3.77 euros. This amount is 90 percent lower than the official poverty threshold in Italy. Instead of unlocking potential, the digitalization of services has become a tool for precision exploitation.
This practice, known as caporalato, is no longer exclusive to agriculture. It has moved to the streets of metropolises, where couriers work 13 hours a day, seven days a week. Prosecutors are expanding the investigation to the entities commissioning the deliveries. McDonald's, Burger King, and the Esselunga chain have come under scrutiny. The question is whether the giants knew at what cost their products were being delivered.
Simultaneously, in Poland, we are observing another dimension of global cost optimization. The Swedish concern Electrolux has confirmed the relocation of part of its production from Kraków to India. This decision means laying off up to 200 people. However, these numbers do not capture the cynicism of the procedure employed.
The company's management expects the laid-off employees to train their successors from Asia. This is a condition for receiving severance pay under a voluntary redundancy program. The knowledge that employees have accumulated over the years is transferred, and its carriers are removed. Capital has no nationality, and corporate loyalty ends where cheaper labor begins.
3.77 euros — The delivery rate in the Deliveroo system, serving as a symbol of the extreme devaluation of human labor by algorithms. Institutional Resistance and Digital Threats. In response to the progressive precarization of work, legal and social systems are trying to build dams. In Germany, a wave of works council elections began on March 1, 2026. This process will cover 180,000 enterprises and concerns nearly 20 million employees. This is Europe's largest test for the co-determination model.
The stakes of these elections are no longer just the size of raises. The campaign focuses on the right to be offline and the regulation of remote work. Trade unions must face a new challenge. The far-right AfD may compete for seats on the councils. Political polarization is entering workplaces, exploiting the fear of technological transformation.
The German model of co-determination, shaped by laws from 1952 and 1976, guaranteed social stability for decades. Currently, it must adapt to a reality where the employee is often a scattered element of a digital puzzle rather than part of a cohesive factory crew.
Where the state fails to keep up with regulations, crime exploiting gaps in digital education appears. In Poland, the police are recording an escalation of financial fraud. In 2025 alone, services seized assets of cybercriminals worth nearly 78 million PLN. This is evidence of the professionalization of the extortion sector.
Criminal groups in Warsaw and Garwolin use advanced social engineering. They offer fictitious shares in fuel companies or impersonate water utility employees. Banks, including PKO BP and ING, announce technical breaks in an attempt to tighten systems. However, technology is developing faster than user awareness, especially among seniors, to whom the Lower Silesian Police direct the „Senior na 6 z plusem” program. The Limits of Consumer Endurance. Optimization affects not only workers but also consumers of public services. An example from Hamburg shows how the market reacts to changes in price parameters. After the price of the Deutschlandticket rose from 55 to 60 euros, the number of subscribers fell by 0.5 percent.
The Hamburg Transport Association (HVV) downplays this outflow. A spokesperson for the association points to the repeatability of the cycle, recalling an identical drop in January 2025. They claim that the 1.24 million active users in the region is still an impressive result. However, it is a warning signal.
Number of Deutschlandticket subscribers in Hamburg (HVV): January 2025: 1.23, December 2025: 1.246, January 2026: 1.24
Every price increase tests the elasticity of demand. Although HVV ensures recovery of losses in subsequent months, this trend reveals the sensitivity of wallets to administrative decisions. On a macro scale, the drive to balance transport budgets clashes with passengers' ability to pay.
One cannot ignore the argument that the actions of companies like Deliveroo or Electrolux are rational from an economic point of view. Lowering delivery costs increases the availability of services for the mass customer. Relocating production to India allows for maintaining competitive prices for household appliances on the global market. Corporate profit often translates into lower prices on store shelves.
However, this reasoning ignores hidden costs. Savings on the price of a refrigerator or pizza are financed by the degradation of labor standards and the erosion of social security. When an Electrolux employee in Kraków loses their livelihood, and a courier in Milan earns below the poverty threshold, the burden of their support falls on social welfare systems. Profit is privatized by corporations, while social costs are socialized. Short-sighted efficiency breeds long-term obligations that no algorithm includes in a quarterly report.
The future appears as a continuous negotiation between human and procedure. The works council elections in Germany will show whether traditional forms of resistance are effective in the digital age. The actions of prosecutors in Italy may set new standards for platform accountability. Meanwhile, in Poland, employees teaching the successors of their own dismissal become a symbol of a new social contract. A contract where loyalty is a system error, and the only certain currency is adaptation. „vor einem Jahr (im Januar 2025) gab es einen Effekt in gleicher Größenordnung, auch da wurde das Deutschlandticket teurer” (a year ago (in January 2025) there was an effect of the same magnitude, also then the Deutschlandticket became more expensive) — HVV Spokesperson
Perspektywy mediów: Left-wing media may use the example of Deliveroo and Electrolux as evidence of the need for a radical tightening of labor laws and the introduction of global corporate regulations. Right-wing media will likely focus on the threat from economic crime in Poland and the political aspect of the AfD entering works councils in Germany.