Gig Trap: The International Labour Organization’s Late Resolutions Must Bind Now

Labor is not a commodity,” the International Labour Organization declared in its 1944
Philadelphia Declaration. Yet, 8 decades later, the global sharing economy treats
labor precisely as one. In the span of a single decade, around 154 million workers
have been drawn into platform-based work marketed as flexible but delivered as
precarious. Behind every ride, delivery, and domestic task, there is a worker labelled
an independent contractor, excluded from basic labor rights, social protections, and a
voice that regular employees take for granted.

In this context, the International Labour Organization’s slow and hesitant action has
ensured that no comprehensive laws exist to mandate worker classification. Leaving
84-90% of location-based drivers, whose gigs form their main income, without the
promise of minimum wage or overtime protections that apply to traditional staff. Care
and semitic platforms exploit the absence of such laws by posing as mere
marketplaces, dodging employer liabilities, admin burdens, or even basic safety
standards. In stark contrast, nations like the Republic of India entitle regular workers
to maternity leave, termination pay, and insurance under labor codes, basic rights gig
workers forfeit entirely due to misclassification loopholes that no international law yet
closes. Even promising national laws fail without global enforcement, as the Republic
of India’s 2025 Code on Social Security requires platforms to fund 1-2% of revenue
into provident funds and insurance. Yet this code lacks binding registration
mandates, leaving 300,000 to 10 million workers unprotected. The EU’s 2024
Platform Work directive presumes employee status via control criteria and calls for
algorithmic transparency by 2026, but it omits universal portability for cross-border
work and enforcement against non-EU platforms; meanwhile, the People's Republic
of China's 84 million gig workers (21% of the workforce) operate in a legal black
hole, barred from sick leave, maternity benefits, or pensions by contractor status with
no overriding ILO standard. Fragmented rules like these prove insufficient;
borderless apps demand unified laws on fair contracts, deactivation appeals, and
deduction limits to curb power imbalances.

The ILO’s Yello Report consultations talk about consensus on standards, yet deliver
no binding conventions, even as the Republic of India’s gig force goes up to 23.5
million by 2030 and China's nears 40% of jobs. Missing are laws for algorithmic
accountability, which require a human review of pay decisions, task allocation, and
bans. Without these, platforms arbitrarily impose "terms" that resemble employment
control without legal obligations, echoing past gaps prior to child labor prohibitions.

The International Labour Organization must legislate new financing models and
safety protocols now to give workers a voice, health standards, social security, and
basic human dignity in every platform's DNA.

Delegates must champion binding ILO conventions for clear classification criteria,
portable protections, and algorithmic transparency funded by platforms, which
ensure the sharing economy shares risks and rewards equitably. Delay entrenches
exploitation; swift laws reclaim decent work for millions before every single worker
out there loses their voice and rights.