Algorithmic management poses significant risks in the workplace. On one hand, it facilitates discrimination by relying on opaque patterns, making it difficult for “victims” to detect and prove unfair treatment. On the other hand, it intensifies work pressure and diminishes autonomy, which harms the physical and mental health of staff. Simultaneously, the ability to collect and process data in bulk provides the company with extensive control. Consequently, workers’ bargaining power diminishes, making it harder to participate in the distribution of productivity gains. Technology is also used offensively to monitor and press down on wages. With increasingly advanced algorithms, predicting and restricting the emergence of union or collective claims leaders becomes feasible. This phenomenon is exacerbated by productive outsourcing, as major companies maintain strict control through technological platforms while evading legal liabilities. To address these challenges, the text proposes an obligation to negotiate and agree with workers’ representatives, along with the implementation of recurring audits of algorithms to protect dignity and labour rights.

Companies increasingly tend to outsource any activities that do not form part of their core business, as well as any activities that do not enable them to generate added value, due to their lack of specialization or specific knowledge.

When making decisions in this respect, the variables that may most influence whether a service should be outsourced are the value that the activity generates for the company, the need to make management and structural costs variable, and operational flexibility.

It is essential to analyse outsourcing from all possible angles but, most importantly, we have to be objective when it comes to evaluating the pros and cons of the decision from an economic and production point of view. Moreover, the company’s general strategy must be taken into account to ensure that any outsourcing decisions are perfectly aligned to it, without any discrepancy.

Last but not least, we should take great care in terms of the kind of agreement that we reach with the companies offering logistics outsourcing services, as this will be the foundation for ensuring that we meet the financial and production objectives set.

In this article, we focus on logistics activities that may be suitable for outsourcing, the reasons for outsourcing these activities and the type of suppliers of this kind of services.