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The International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted a new global treaty for decent working conditions in the gig economy at its 114th session in Geneva on 12 June 2026. 

The ILO Convention No. 193 on Decent Work in the Platform Economy is the first global treaty to set binding labour standards for gig work. Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the standards as a major step towards protecting the rights of millions of workers worldwide.

The convention addresses long-standing gaps in protection for workers whose jobs are managed through digital labour platforms, including pay, safety and health, social security, algorithmic management, and correct classification – a key issue in determining whether workers receive their entitled protections. 

The vote passed 406 to 8, with 36 abstentions.

In response to the vote, Lena Simet, senior economic justice adviser at the HRW, said governments have recognised that companies cannot use new technologies as a loophole to avoid workers’ rights, including fair pay, safe working conditions, and social security.

The HRW urged governments to promptly ratify the convention, incorporate it into domestic law, and ensure that workers and their organisations are meaningfully involved in its implementation and enforcement at the national level.

The convention is the outcome of a multi-year process. In 2023, the ILO Governing Body placed the issue on the agenda, initiating two rounds of negotiations in 2025 and 2026. The HWR provided input throughout the drafting process, calling for robust protections for platform workers in line with their human rights.

Platform, or “gig,” work is growing rapidly around the world, from taxi and food delivery to care work and online data tasks. The World Bank estimates that 435 million people globally earn income through labour platforms. Human Rights Watch and other rights and workers’ organisations have documented that these workers often face low and unpredictable earnings, unsafe conditions, a lack of social security, and little recourse when companies cut off their access to work without justification.

HRW said many of these companies classify workers as self-employed or independent contractors, even while controlling key aspects of the job through automated systems, including pay, task allocation, performance monitoring, ratings, and account suspension or deactivation. This often denies workers labour protections and shifts the costs and risks of work onto them.

The new convention directly addresses this issue by requiring governments to take measures to ensure that gig workers are correctly classified, primarily based on how their work is performed and paid. 

The convention applies to platform workers in the formal and informal economy, including work carried out in person, such as taxi and delivery, or online, such as data labelling, content moderation, or other digital tasks.

Some protections apply regardless of classification. These include freedom of association and collective bargaining, the elimination of forced and child labour, non-discrimination, and a safe and healthy working environment. 

Other protections are tied to employment status. The treaty requires timely payment and clear information about their pay and any deductions. It requires that those in an employment relationship receive at least the applicable minimum wage, excluding tips, and compensation for work-related expenses in line with national law and practice. For workers not considered employees, governments should consider whether minimum wages should also apply. The treaty addresses a major gap for many workers by ensuring access to social security on terms no less favourable than those available to workers with the same employment status.

The convention further requires companies to inform workers about automated systems used to monitor or evaluate their work, or to generate decisions related to their work, and about how those systems affect working conditions or access to work. It provides for workers’ right to request a written explanation and review, with appropriate human involvement, of significant automated decisions that adversely affect their work, including non-payment, suspension, or deactivation.

In addition, it guarantees safeguards for workers’ privacy rights and personal data, and protection against discriminatory or unlawful suspensions, deactivations, or terminations.

The treaty includes specific protections for migrant and refugee platform workers, requiring governments to prevent abuses and provide adequate protection throughout recruitment, engagement, and work. HRW has documented that migrant delivery workers in the Middle East can face recruitment-related debt, dangerous heat, a lack of social security, and limited recourse when platforms or intermediaries fail to protect them.

The ILO process was expected to produce a recommendation alongside the convention, a non-binding instrument that would have provided more detailed guidance on implementation. However, it was not finalised due to a lack of time. “Future negotiations should prioritise completing that work,” HRW said.

The countries that voted in favour of the convention included Australia, Mexico, Namibia, Spain, Oman, and Indonesia. Those that voted against it included the United States and New Zealand. The countries that abstained from voting included Argentina, Bangladesh, the UK, Libya, and Chile.