Today, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) held a panel discussion on the challenges to realizing the rights to work and social security in the informal economy. One critical issue raised was the growth of platform work, known as gig work, where workers find and perform jobs through digital labor platforms like Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart.
While platform companies promote flexibility, the reality for many workers is exclusion from labor and social security rights.
As Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif noted: “We find ourselves at a moment of considerable change in the world of work. Rapidly evolving technologies are transforming jobs. These technologies have brought improvements to workplace safety and have provided greater flexibility for workers. But they also carry risks and need to be managed responsibly.”
Human Rights Watch research in the United States, Georgia, Mexico, and the European Union shows that without proper regulation, platform companies regularly misclassify workers as independent contractors to cut costs and evade employer obligations. They shift business costs and risks onto workers while routinely paying below the minimum wage, denying workers compensation for job-related injuries, and avoiding contributions to social security programs.
In Texas, we found that some full-time platform workers earned just 30 percent of a living wage. An accident, sudden illness, or wrongful termination could push them into debt or homelessness, while the companies they work for expand their market share and social security systems lose out on critical funding.
Our research further found that platform companies use opaque algorithms, surveillance technologies, and behavioral tactics to control workers while maintaining the illusion that they work independently.
This is not some benign innovation—it is the erosion of labor rights.
Governments should take action to ensure that platform work does not become a loophole for exploitation and instead contribute to building a human rights economy. Governments should:
Strengthen employment classification laws to prevent misclassification.
Extend wage protections, social security, and workplace safety protections to platform workers.
Ensure algorithmic management of workers is fair and transparent.
Support an international convention to safeguard platform workers’ rights at the International Labour Conference in 2025 and 2026.
Without reforms, platform work risks deepening economic inequalities and further entrenching what the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights referred to as “in-work poverty” in his 2023 report to the UN General Assembly.