The debate on how to adjust existing regulation to keep pace with the rise and spread of the non-standard workforce worldwide has chiefly concentrated on individual employment law. This article means to draw attention to some collective labour regulation issues that have a significant impact on the labour protection of non-standard workers. Without subscribing to the idea that the standard employment relationship is an outmoded model of regulation this article argues that some existing restrictions to collective rights are failing to keep pace with the transformation in labour markets occurred in recent decades and in particular with the growth in the number of non-standard workers: as a consequence, these workers are denied, legally or practically, access to the meaningful exercise of collective rights. Some of these restrictions, such as regulations imposing strike ballots, limitations of secondary action, antitrust bans on collective bargaining, the distinction between political and economic strikes, are called into question as they disproportionately affect non-standard workers and are at odds with the recognition of collective rights, and in particular the right to strike, as human rights.