Overview
- The International Labour Organization adopted the convention on Friday, June 12, 2026, in Geneva with 406 members voting in favor, eight against and 36 abstaining.
- The text limits firms’ use of independent-contractor status by requiring governments to ensure correct employment classification and by obliging platforms to disclose how automated systems affect work and pay.
- The convention does not take effect automatically because each country must ratify and implement the rules into national law and the ILO itself cannot directly enforce them.
- Trade unions and rights groups hailed the move as a landmark remedy for low pay and precarity while employer representatives welcomed language that preserves national legal discretion; the World Bank estimates 154–435 million app-based workers and a 2025 Human Rights Watch survey found median U.S. platform pay far below minimum wage after expenses.
- Key next steps to watch are which governments ratify the convention, how they rewrite national rules on classification, and whether courts or regulators use the new standard to open legal claims or investigations against platforms.