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Joint Civil Society Declaration at the International Labour Conference 2025
Privacy International and other civil society organisations are calling on the ILO to protect workers from algorithmic harms by adopting legally binding standards on decent work in the platform economy.
Advocacy
Post date
3rd June 2025
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is developing standards for decent work in the platform economy. Gig workers are exposed to a range of harms because of the precarious nature of their work and the use of opaque algorithms to manage them.
Privacy International has come together with Human Rights Watch, TEDIC, IT for Change, Derechos Digitales and more than 30 other organisations to demand that this new ILO standard puts a stop to harmful practice, protects and promotes workers' rights and stands against data-driven exploitation. Together, we are calling for:
- Proper employment classification
- Guarantee of fair and living wages
- Access to social security
- Health and safety standards
- Transparency and explainability for algorithmic decisions
- Protection for workers’ data
- Meaningful human intervention in decisions
- Appropriate mechanisms to challenge adverse decisions and ensure access to effective remedies
- Protect bargaining power
Platform workers have been at the forefront of new forms of data exploitation in the workplace. Secret algorithms, biased decisions and a lack of rights have all contributed to a deterioration in working conditions and employee/employer relations. A new ILO Convention must respond to this technological environment and prevent these harmful practices becoming further entrenched and accepted.
Download the full statement below
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