The Author, after a brief outline of the doctrinal opinions and case law on the legal aspects of gratuitous dependent work, exa-mines its prevalent descriptive model, that is atypical contract of employment. The system of classification seems to be complicated by the multiform empiric data and the recent specific legislation on voluntary work and on social cooperatives.
In the absence of a unitary contractual pattern, the Author suggests an extension of the traditional model of dependent work so as to indude the gratuitous version