Geneva, Switzerland - Countries negotiating a new international labor treaty on gig work must adopt binding standards on issues including fair pay and social security, Human Rights Watch said in a report Wednesday.
Governments are expecting to finish talks on the treaty – which will aim to protect hundreds of millions who find work through digital labor platforms – during the International Labour Organization's main annual conference in Geneva next month.
"These jobs don't come with any of the protections that ordinary jobs have," HRW's senior economic justice adviser Lena Simet told AFP.
"Platform companies have built a business model that sidesteps labor protections and shifts risks and costs onto the workers."
The World Bank estimated in 2023 there were up to 435 million online gig workers around the globe.
Yet the HRW report Simet wrote, titled Algorithms of Exploitation: Rights Abuses in the Gig Economy and the Global Fight for Change, argued labor practices had not kept pace.
The report highlighted that the companies behind the apps control the gig work via algorithms that assign tasks, set pay, evaluate performance, and even fire workers.
Gig workers classified as independent contractors
The model offers "high returns and low risk" for the companies, but the report warned that for workers "digital platforms have rewritten the rule of work."
Despite largely controlling the tasks and pay, the platforms classify the workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
HRW said this designation allowed companies to ignore minimum wage requirements, workplace safety, and access to social security.
HRW interviewed platform workers in nine countries, including Britain, India, Kenya, and Lebanon.
The workers described long hours, unpredictable and declining pay, and serious safety risks, often without social security or support in cases of injury or illness.
HRW appealed to negotiators at the ILO to ensure key guarantees for all platform workers regardless of their employment status – including minimum wage or living wage, and access to social security.
"The decisions governments make now will shape the future of work for millions of people," Simet said. "They should ensure that platform work is governed by fair pay, safety, and social security – not exploitation."