In August 2025, the death of a delivery driver sparked a new colossal social mobilization of workers at ojol platforms [a contraction of the words "ojek" ("motorcycle taxi") and "online" in Indonesia]. Their demands are simple: decent social protection and recognition of their work!
A few months earlier, in Geneva, a first victory towards decent work for digital platform workers was achieved thanks to an agreement on the adoption of a new Convention and Recommendation from the International Labour Organization (ILO). However, the work is not yet finished. Tripartite negotiations are still ongoing between states, workers' representatives and employers. Trade unions and civil society are keeping up the pressure to ensure that these new international standards address shortcomings in terms of labour rights and social protection, particularly for those working under the "self-employed" status or in the informal sector.
The next ILO conference in June 2026 will be decisive!
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that the digital platform economy employs around 150 million people worldwide in a variety of industries, including transport, delivery, care to people or animals, domestic services, tutoring, data transformation services[1] and many other sectors. This number is only growing: in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, these platforms have become a key source of income for thousands of young people and women excluded from formal employment. However, a vast majority of these workers cannot claim any social rights, let alone benefit from social protection, because they are in a legislative grey area in terms of regulation of their rights at work.
Globally, the ILO's International Labour Office reports that this economy will be worth US$10,200 billion in 2023[2] and estimates that there are 1070 platforms. However, these figures are largely underestimated, due to the persistent lack of data for low-income countries, even though they are the ones with the greatest growth in the platform economy. For example, 4% of employed people in the Philippines are thought to work through digital platforms. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are home to more than half of the workers on the largest English-language platforms for online work, although 60% of the head offices are in Europe[3]. In Belgium alone, for example, there are around 150 platforms.
The ACV-CSC, WSM, the INSP!R and their various partners are demanding essential rights to protect platform workers, in terms of trade union freedoms (organisation and collective bargaining), health and safety at work, remuneration, social security, transparency of algorithms, access to data, etc.
[1] Une victoire mondiale pour les travailleurs des plateformes: l'OIT accepte de négocier une norme contraignante - International Trade Union Confederation
[2] According to MarketCap Companies
[3] According to figures available by the ILO
Back to the definition
The platform economy refers to digital labour platforms, which are online platforms that allow individuals and organisations to connect with other people, organisations and businesses in exchange for remuneration, by using an automated decision-making system. These platforms have 3 stakeholders: the platform (most often via an application or a website), the customer and the workers.
The platform generates a meeting point between supply and demand, creating wealth for shareholders. Unfortunately, workers' remuneration remains low, being defined by a platform algorithm, regulating working conditions. This specificity is one of the main characteristics of the platform economy: the algorithm adapts prices according to demand and supply in real time on the basis of dynamic pricing and by predicting peaks in demand. It also identifies consumers' habits thanks to their profile data and offers them a personalized offer[1].
A highly creative and growing sector
New ideas emerge according to demand and result in a wide variety of offers on these platforms, both in terms of exclusively online services (translation, data management, etc.) and localized services (such as delivery). For example, there are shared taxi offers to take children to school, a platform for workers in the care, health and beauty sectors, etc. Their business model is also very varied: via subscription, self-service but with a premium subscription suggested, by advertising funding, and it plays on the competitive advantage of their economies of scale due to the large size of their network, sometimes even in a monopsony position (controlling the market and the related innovation). Access to smartphones and high-speed internet has particularly accelerated this economy.
[1] ILC.113/Report V(1), p23, 2024
The main problem lies in the working conditions and access to social protection for these digital platform workers, and more broadly, the overall impact on the reorganisation of work.
A destructive economic model
The platform economy is currently short-termist and highly focused on economic profitability. Escaping our classic economic model, it has a serious impact on workers' labour rights, while generating massive revenues for shareholders, which aggravates socio-economic inequalities. In addition to escaping the classic economic model, platform economies transform them: by employing very few salaried employees and generating large profits. More and more "traditional" companies are hiring fewer and fewer employees and using freelancers/freelancers, who are a precarious workforce. These platforms, although official, share the characteristics of the informal economy, with little access to social protection and few protection standards for these workers who are demoted in this precarious status.
From a precarious status …
Platform companies do not take responsibility and deny the relationship that empowers them as employers. Traditionally, an employment relationship is characterized by the existence of a relationship of subordination, the payment of remuneration and the exercise of managerial and supervisory power by the employer. Although digital platforms label workers as “freelancers” and deny any employer's liability, there is ample evidence of such a relationship of subordination. However, this is very present and exacerbated by worker performance rating systems, which increase their stress levels and the risk of accidents.
... to precarious workers
In addition, platform work relies heavily on a workforce in a vulnerable situation, attracted in particular by the apparent flexibility of schedules: migrants, young people, students, undocumented. Women are particularly penalized because of the lack of respect of their rights. For example, the lack of guaranteed access to toilets leads some workers to restrict their physiological needs: when they interrupt their activity to look for one, they can be penalised by the platforms for the delays caused. This can have disastrous consequences on their health, including urinary problems and incontinence.
"We have to take out private insurance through our platform, which covers the driver and passenger in the event of a road accident, with medical expenses covered up to 100,000 NPR, or €670. Repairs to the motorcycle are not covered, so we have to take care of them out of our own pockets. Another problem is that sometimes when we arrive to pick up a passenger, the passenger is carrying a baby or toddler and insists on taking it, and we have to agree. But in the event of an accident, the child will not be insured." - Testimonials from Pathao drivers in Nepal
Labour rights violated
On these digital platforms, work is done by the piece or by delivery (which means that workers never know in advance how much they will be able to earn, since this depends on the number of assignments/tasks assigned by the platform, which is highly unpredictable), without an employment contract, without limitation on working hours (in the case of couriers, waiting times are not taken into account), without minimum wage, without access to social security (no protection when there is an illness, no maternity leave, no pension), no protection in the event of an accident at work, no tools, no work equipment provided, no rights to collective bargaining or association, and therefore, no right to form trade unions.
Indecent remuneration
The flexibility of working hours hides relatively low wages, especially when compared to fixed working hours. In addition, there seems to be significant pressure on wages. In the beginning, companies pay workers decently, probably in order to attract them to the platform. Unfortunately, they then gradually lower salaries.
"As many people are looking for work, more and more people are registering on the platform. Many are young, but there are also older people who need to make ends meet. I think more than two-thirds work full-time on this app, often more than twelve or fourteen hours a day. Out of that time, I usually spend about two hours waiting, which is unpaid. Competition is therefore rapidly intensifying. As the algorithm reduces the fare when there is more supply than demand, we earn less money and are forced to accept less paid rides, often only €1 for an hour of driving." - Testimonials from Pathao drivers in Nepal
The growing expansion of diverse platform services in Southeast Asia is creating situations where workers are precarious and without rights. For example, in Indonesia, there are now "super" apps that offer several different types of services, but where workers work 12 hours a day with a very low salary. These platforms are taking advantage of the economic context that still favours the expansion of the sector and their economic weight, and put workers against each other by establishing a system of supply and demand (for labor). The more workers there are waiting, the lower the rates become.
Data exploitation
Another element that is a challenge for the platform economy and its workers is the management and use of data. Platforms hold a significant amount of data, not only on workers but also on users. It is a mine of information, but civil society and the justice system must learn to process and analyze it in order to claim rights and denounce abuses.
The environmental issues are not to be overlooked because the digital pollution of the sector, in addition to that caused by motorcycles or scooters, is enormous.
Finally, when they cease their activities, these platforms will have profoundly transformed traditional sectors by reshaping the logics of labour relations and the norms that prevailed and protected workers.
Their power to cause harm and to put pressure on workers' rights is forceful!
The platform economy in the European Union (EU) is growing rapidly. Estimated at €3 billion in 2016, it reached €14 billion in revenue in 2020. More than 500 digital labour platforms now operate in the EU, facilitating consumers' access to different services and creating opportunities for businesses[1]. However, this cannot be done without clear rules.
End March 2024, the EU adopted a directive on improving working conditions on these platforms, which was widely supported by trade unions. This directive should be transposed by the Member States into their national legislation by December 2026 at the latest.
In Belgium, since 2016, some platforms have been encouraging workers to adopt a self-employed status or to work under the collaborative economy (or P2P) system, a system initially designed for the solidarity economy and without any social security coverage. In addition to this misuse of the system, despite the platform economy law passed in October 2022, nothing has changed on the ground for many workers who are still falsely considered self-employed (or abusively in the P2P system).
"It is not acceptable that, when the law and their rights are going in their direction, platform workers do not receive the remuneration, benefits and rights that their services deserve.[2]" Martin Willems, United Freelancers
The lack of social security coverage and the working conditions of platform workers must become a major societal issue, before it escapes us completely. Today, a real legal and normative battle is at work and is also being played out in the collective consciousness: we must make the subject visible in the media, make consumers and citizens aware of this model! Wherever these platforms operate, there is a real difficulty in taking trade union action due to the diverse nature and origins of workers, the complexity of the legislation and the disruptive economic model. However, the presence of trade unions and representatives ‘associations, from the creation of the platforms, is crucial to be able to guarantee the rights and well-being of workers.
In Belgium, the ACV-CSC, via United Freelancers, is very active in the defence of platform workers and in discussions on the regulation of their status and rights. The "house of the couriers", an initiative created by United Freelancers, offers a place for these workers to take a break, with a permanent office to give advice on labour law and fight against the precariousness of these workers. And it works! Some victories have been achieved thanks to the work of United Freelancers, such as the reclassification of an Uber driver as an employee on June 13, 2025. This example shows that mobilization by organizing workers is possible. Unfortunately, it is relentless, because the platforms are indeed full of ingenuity to 'disrupt' the rules put in place.
In Nepal, the delivery people are organised under the RUN banner "Riders Union Nepal", supported by the GEFONT union, a partner of WSM and a member of the INSP!R network. Various trainings and awareness-raising are organized to defend the protection of these workers, while ensuring that their voices are heard in legislative processes at the national and international levels.
The Convention being prepared at the ILO will provide a new and powerful lever to defend the rights of these workers at the local level.
[1] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/fr/infographics/platform-economy/
[2] https://www.lacsc.be/page-dactualites/2025/06/18/un-chauffeur-uber-requalifie-comme-salarie-par-la-cour-du-travail-de-bruxelles
Early March, the ILO's new Report has been published on the basis of input from member states and social partners. This report forms the basis for the final negotiations of the Convention and Recommendation in June 2026. As in June 2025, it is possible that the negotiations in 2026 will be difficult. However, the issues on the agenda will be key: the classification of workers, social protection, collective bargaining, conflict management and resolution. The employers' side will certainly continue to deny their responsibility as employers, as they will argue that the platforms are only neutral intermediaries between the customer and the worker.
In June 2025, the following progress was nevertheless made:
"For the first time, there is a clear mandate to regulate digital labour platforms and ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of workers' rights."
Statement by ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle at the end of the ILO negotiations in 2025 - ITUC
We can expect the resistance of the companies to continue, but the mobilization of the workers will be all the stronger!
Join the ITUC campaign! Let's change the game!
The INSP!R makes the following requests:
[1] In line with the conclusions of the ILO Expert Meeting on Wage Policies, including Living Wages, held in February 2024 and within the framework of the ILO Living Wages Programme. Conclusions on the general discussion on promoting transition to formality
