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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 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 across 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.
