GENEVA: The first-ever international agreement on safeguarding workers in the gig economy could be adopted on Friday, when members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are expected to give their approval. After nearly two weeks of committee meetings and a final full night of talks, negotiators settled on Thursday on a draft text for a convention on “Decent Work in the Platform Economy”.

The text, published on the ILO’s website, will still need to be formally approved by the United Nations agency’s full membership at a plenary meeting that wraps up its annual decision-making gathering.

If the agreement gets over the finish line, it would be a big deal — potentially extending labour protections to hundreds of millions of people worldwide who work through digital platforms, in areas like food delivery, car services and dog walking.

“This convention would mark a turning point for platform workers worldwide,” said Human Rights Watch’s senior economic justice adviser Lena Simet, who has been following the talks in Geneva.

It would establish “the first global standard to protect their rights and hold digital labour platforms accountable”, she said. Until now, labour practices have struggled to keep pace with the dramatic shifts in the way people work. The World Bank estimated in 2023 there were up to 435 million online gig workers around the globe, who have largely fallen outside regular labour protections.

Fair conditions

Companies behind the apps control the gig work via algorithms that assign tasks, set pay, evaluate performance and even fire workers. Despite largely controlling the tasks and pay, the platforms typically classify the workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

This allows them in many cases to ignore things like minimum wage requirements, workplace safety and access to social security. An agreement is sorely needed, said Kate Dearden, Britain’s minister for employment rights and consumer protection.

People should have “good quality work, regardless of how you engage”, she told reporters in Geneva.

“(Job) security and flexibility… shouldn’t actually have to be a play-off,” she insisted.

Thursday’s eight-page draft text calls for countries to guarantee core labour rights to platform workers, regardless of whether companies classify them as employees or contractors.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2026