Overview
- Members of the International Labour Organization formally adopted the convention on Friday, June 12, creating the first international treaty aimed at workers in the digital platform economy.
- The text requires states to secure core labour rights for platform workers, including freedom of association, collective bargaining, elimination of forced and child labour, health and safety, protection from violence and harassment, access to social security, and payment guarantees.
- The convention applies irrespective of how platforms classify workers and responds to algorithmic management that assigns tasks, sets pay, and disciplines workers who are often labeled independent contractors.
- The treaty will take legal effect one year after at least two countries ratify it and will enter into force for each ratifying state one year after that country's ratification.
- Some governments sought flexible application and the text allows limited, justified exclusions, which unions and rights groups warn could leave categories of workers unprotected even as the treaty promises to extend social protections to millions (the World Bank estimated up to 435 million platform workers in 2023).