Governments negotiating a new global treaty on gig work should strengthen the draft text to ensure fair wages and social security for these workers and protect them from exploitative management, Human Rights Watch said today, submitting a briefing with proposals for the treaty.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is currently developing the first global rules for work organized through "digital platforms," businesses like Uber, Lyft, or DoorDash. As part of the ILO process, governments, workers, and employers are submitting comments on the draft ahead of final negotiations in 2026.
"This is a historic opportunity to make sure technology and the economy work for workers, not against them," said Lena Simet, senior economic justice researcher at Human Rights Watch. "At the ILO, governments, employers, and workers are writing the rules together, and those rules should protect the people doing the work, not the corporations that shift costs and risks onto their workers."
The ILO estimates that platform work has nearly doubled in recent years, and the World Bank estimates that up to 400 million people now earn income through these businesses.
These companies promise their workers freedom and flexibility, but in reality, undermine their rights.
Around the world, platform companies misclassify workers as self-employed, evading legal obligations for minimum wages, safety, and social security. Algorithms determine who works, when, and at what rate, usually without transparency for workers or accountability for errors and injustices. Existing international law does not provide guidance on algorithmic management in the workplace, leaving a major gap in securing protections for workers' rights.
The Human Rights Watch briefing complements a joint submission with nine civil society organizations outlining concrete proposals to ensure the treaty delivers on its promise of decent work for all platform workers. Human Rights Watch's recommendations build on findings from a report the organization released earlier in 2025, which documented that platform workers across the US are being denied their human rights, including with pay below the minimum wage, unsafe working conditions, and the use of opaque and unaccountable algorithms to evade employer responsibilities.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the treaty treat platform workers as employees unless a company can prove genuine independence, ensuring workers are not wrongly classified as self-employed and denied labor rights protections. At the same time, it should make clear that all individuals working for these companies, regardless of contractual status, are entitled to the treaty's protections.
The treaty should guarantee workers' rights to safe and healthy working conditions by requiring companies to mitigate work-related risks and algorithm-driven pressure that pushes workers to work faster or longer. It should also ensure fair wages for all working time, including waiting periods, and require companies to cover the work-related expenses and social security contributions that traditional employers pay.
Stronger safeguards are also needed for algorithmic management. The treaty should require transparency about how automated systems affect all aspects of work, including pay and access to jobs, and ensure meaningful human review and appeal for automated decisions. Finally, it should explicitly protect gig workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively without retaliation or digital surveillance, ensuring that workers can safely join together to improve their conditions.
Governments should use this moment to champion a treaty that brings platform work in line with international human rights law, Human Rights Watch said.
"Gig workers have the same rights as everyone else," Simet said. "They should not be paid poverty wages or abused through the use of blackbox and unfair algorithms. This ILO treaty can help correct the violations many gig workers face worldwide and show that human rights can be enforced in the digital age."
