The ILO Just Adopted a Convention on Platform Work. The Real Fight Starts Now.
A new global labour standard has been adopted in Geneva. It does not settle every question, but it changes the terrain: digital innovation can no longer be treated as an excuse for weaker rights.
On 12 June 2026, the International Labour Conference adopted a new Convention on decent work in the platform economy, with 406 votes in favour and 8 against.
That result matters.
At a time when many labour reforms around the world are moving toward deregulation, individualization and weaker protections, the new global standard points in a different direction. The message from Geneva is not that platform work is too new, too flexible or too technologically complex to regulate. It is that platform work is work, and that apps, algorithms and digital business models do not erase basic labour rights.
This is a major development for platform workers. But it also matters beyond platforms.
Many of the issues discussed in Geneva are not marginal or sector-specific. They are becoming central to the future of work more broadly: who counts as a worker, how pay is calculated, how decisions are automated, how data is used, how workers can challenge unfair treatment, and what happens when responsibility is fragmented across contractors, intermediaries and digital systems.
The Convention addresses many of these questions: employment classification, fair payment, social protection, algorithmic management, data and privacy, deactivation, violence and harassment, occupational safety and health, migrant workers, intermediaries, and access to remedies.
But the text also leaves major questions open. Some provisions are strong. Others are cautious. Some victories are legal; others are political. And much will depend on what happens next: how governments implement the Convention, how unions and worker organizations use it, how courts interpret it, and how public debate understands what is now at stake.
That is why I will be publishing a new dispatch series unpacking the Convention theme by theme.
The goal is not only to explain what the text says. It is to use each issue as a lens for understanding broader transformations in work.
Why does classification matter for every worker, not only for those on apps? Because employment status determines access to wages, social security, collective rights and remedies.
Why does algorithmic management matter beyond platforms? Because automated systems are increasingly shaping hiring, scheduling, evaluation, discipline and access to income across sectors.
Why do pay transparency and waiting time matter? Because more workers are being paid only for fragmented tasks, while absorbing unpaid time, costs and risks.
Why does deactivation matter? Because losing access to work through an opaque system is one of the clearest examples of how power can operate without due process.
Why do violence, harassment and safety matter in platform work? Because digital intermediation often hides very physical risks: unsafe streets, abusive clients, homes as workplaces, gendered exposure, and the absence of effective protection.
Why do intermediaries matter? Because responsibility is increasingly dispersed through chains of subcontracting, outsourcing and contractual arrangements that can make it harder for workers to know who is accountable.
Over the coming weeks, I will look at these issues one by one, connecting the Convention to concrete worker experiences, regulatory debates and struggles in Latin America and beyond.
This first dispatch is only the starting point.
The adoption of the Convention is a victory, but not a guarantee. The next phase will be about implementation, enforcement and political meaning. In other words: whether this new global standard becomes a real tool for workers, or remains a text on paper.
If you are a worker, union, worker organization, policymaker, researcher, journalist or lawyer following these debates, I would love to hear from you. What issue matters most in your context? What case, conflict or regulatory debate should this series track?
You can write to me here:
And if you want to support independent, public-facing analysis on platform work, labour rights and digital regulation, you can buy me a coffee.