Introduction
Over the last ten years, the world has seen a huge transformation in the global economy with the explosive growth of the platform or gig economy. Millions of people around the world are now making a living with digital platforms like Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon Flex and a wide variety of other app-based service providers. But a basic issue lies beneath this transformation. One major question arises whether these people workers who deserve all the rights of workers, or are they independent contractors and take the responsibility of their own welfare and out of the ambit of the workers’ rights.
This issue is not just academic, or one that plays in national courts. At the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference in June 2025, the international organization for labour standards pledged to establish international standards for platform work that will be legally binding. The final round of negotiations is scheduled to be at the 2026 International Labour Conference, where the issue will be firmly on the agenda of the labour law debate worldwide.
Brief Overview
The gig economy is a broad term for a labour market made up of short-term, contractual and freelance employment, usually facilitated via digital platforms. According to the ILO, platform work has almost doubled in the last six years (from 2016 to 2021) and the World bank estimates that up to 435 million people around the world are involved in platform work. But the protection of labour has not been commensurate with this growth.
The issue revolves around an inherent structural ambiguity. It is a common practice for platform companies to re-classify employees as independent contractors or self-employed persons. In most countries, this class excludes workers from the coverage of minimum wages, social security taxes, occupational health and safety regulations, vacation benefits and collective bargaining rights. In reality however, in most cases the platform workers are working under conditions that are very similar to a job: they are controlled by algorithms with respect to the tasks assigned, the money they get for their work, and how their work is monitored; they are deactivated (the platform equivalent of dismissal) when their rating is poor; and they are economically dependent on the platform, to earn a living.
Human Rights Watch documented in its May 2026 report, titled Algorithms of Exploitation, that workers across nine countries including India, Kenya, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom faced low and unstable earnings, unsafe working conditions, and little or no protection upon injury or illness. The report found that many US platform workers earned below minimum wage after deducting expenses, while being simultaneously denied the legal protections that employees take for granted.
Comparison With Previous Legal Framework
The current legal framework on gig worker classification is rather uncoordinated and weak, with some parts being ambiguous. The classification of employee vs. independent contractor originated under traditional employment law in the context of craft workers, freelance professionals and small business owners who really worked for themselves. This binary, however, is not quite fitting when working at an algorithmic platform.
The legal posture has ebbs and flows in the United States. The US Department of Labor (DOL) in February 2026 proposed a new rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
to revise the classification analysis, giving more weight to two primary factors: the amount of control the worker has over the work; and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss. This proposed rule, supported by the Trump administration, would effectively ease the way for companies to consider workers as independent contractors and thus lessen their rights to federal wage protection, critics have argued.
In the United Kingdom in the case of Uber BV v Aslam, the decision made by the Supreme Court in its ruling indicated that the Uber drivers were to be classified as “workers,” which is a third classification of labor in the United Kingdom, between that of an employee and that of an independent contractor who earns a minimum wage. In the European Union, the newly passed Platform Work Directive in 2024 provides for a rebuttable presumption that any person working through a platform is an employee and that it will be up to the platforms to prove otherwise.
The adoption of such an ILO convention represents an important turning point. While prior instruments in the form of recommendations and guidelines were soft-law provisions, a convention will place upon members certain binding commitments once adopted. The creation of a third type of independent contractor in international law, which can be described as a worker that economically depends on a platform and comes under its control, may establish an alternative basis for resolving this dichotomy.
Challenges And Practical Implications
- Defining Platform Workers: One of the challenges is defining who constitutes a platform worker. Gig economy workers are not just location-based, like drivers and delivery employees, but online employees like programmers, designers, and data annotators. The definition could be too generous and result in enforcement issues, or too restrictive and leave out those who are most vulnerable.
- Political and Regulatory Resistance: Compliance costs and regulatory burden have been a concern for several governments and employer groups. Proposals which would limit the scope of protections to operation “in accordance with national law and practice” would undermine the convention by allowing domestic law to restrict application of international laws.
- Algorithmic Management: Gig workers more often are under the supervision of algorithms than of humans. Automated systems assign work, assess performance, and deactivate accounts, raising issues of transparency, accountability, and employees’ rights to contest unfair decisions.
- Enforcement and Implementation: The effectiveness of a strong convention will rely on national enforcement mechanisms even then that a strong convention is adopted. Developing economies, in particular, could be lacking in institutional capacity to oversee platform companies and enforce labour laws.
- Innovation and worker protection (Innovation and worker protection): The negotiations must balance the flexibility and innovation of platform work with the workers’ rights and protections and their benefits from it.
How the 2026 ILO Process Works
ILO standard setting activities take place via the International Labour Conference held annually in Geneva and comprises government, employer and worker delegates from member countries. In June 2025, a majority of governments and workers’ organizations supported starting work towards negotiating legally binding international standards on platform work after years of campaigning for these standards.
The 2026 International Labour Conference is where delegations will negotiate the adoption of the convention and/or recommendation(s) on platform work. Conventions require ratification before becoming legally binding obligations for individual member countries, while recommendations are non-legally binding but serve as authoritative standards internationally.
The negotiation of these instruments is based on a report by the ILO which sets forth the kind of standards to be considered. Important issues to be negotiated include social security provisions, occupational safety and health, protection against violence and harassment, remuneration standards, algorithmic management and transparency, privacy protections, and worker misclassification.
AMLEGALS Remarks
The ILO negotiations on platform work from 2026 are a milestone in international labour law not just because of the definition of platform workers but also because of the more fundamental issues of fairness, dignity and the sharing of the benefits of innovation. The existing model tends to pass on the risk and cost of the business to the worker, who does not have the protections, social security or labor laws of the business. Governments, platform companies and worker representatives need to build a framework of protections which are meaningful and enforceable as India and other countries experience the rise of the gig economy. So it’s a power struggle in the end, an economic justice issue, and a matter of fairness and respect for those who produce value based on their labour.
For any queries or feedback, feel free to connect with Hiteashi.desai@amlegals.com or Khilansha.mukhija@amlegals.com