Content
Friday May 30th, 2025
For Immediate Release
For more information contact- board@iaatw.org
IAATW challenges the ILO: get up to speed | avoid repeating history | extend full labour rights to app-based drivers and riders
The International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers (IAATW) has released a report titled App-mediated Industrial Relations: Assessing Implementation of ILO Standards Now and in the Future. This global report combines first-hand worker testimony with high-level analysis of the labour conditions faced by workers in app-based transport for global enterprises such as Uber, DoorDash, Delivery Hero, Bolt, etc. It seeks to understand the wide-ranging impacts of corporate practices and legislative gaps in ILO member countries.
The report will be presented at the 113th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, where a new convention and recommendation on platform work are expected to be considered. The global report comes on the heels of the final statement issued by the Dutch government’s National Contact Point (NCP) for Responsible Business Conduct, addressing an OECD Guidelines complaint filed by IAATW against Uber. Like the IAATW global report the NCP’s final statement calls for new standards that Uber (and other such companies) must meet on issues of living wages and remuneration, remedies for deactivation and meaningful engagement with independent worker representatives and organisations. This global report draws upon recent evidence presented by IAATW affiliates across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The countries featured in the report are among the top 15 globally, collectively accounting for 80% of all platform work.
Summarising the build-up leading into the 113th ILC, Biju Mathew, President of IAATW said, “IAATW’s global report, our regional grassroots reports and the Dutch NCP’s excellent final statement can indeed be the basis of a convention that builds a new level of power for workers.”
The global report outlines how the absence of regulation and enforcement has allowed corporations to exert undue influence over the sector. Defending workers’ rights in such an unregulated environment poses overwhelming challenges for workers and their representatives. Muhammad Ejaz Butt, Secretary IAATW welcomed the new report: “Our report identifies the real gap as nothing but the lack of regulation of these big MNEs. The time is now for countries to update their legislative frameworks to ensure full labour rights for app-based transport and delivery workers.”
Addressing the question of how we have ended up with platform MNEs wielding such undue power, Blake Harwell the author of the report said:
“When app-based/platform work was first introduced about twenty years ago, the ILO and member countries could have simply adapted their laws to address idiosyncrasies in the labour market. Regrettable as it may be, this did not happen and now ILO members are forced into retroactive rulemaking.”
To re-empower workers under such circumstances, the IAATW members propose that the ILO establish a new standing committee for app-based work. This body would be tasked with both adopting new standards and ensuring their implementation. A standing committee and an aggressive ILO work plan are essential to address key concerns of app-based transport workers and is one of the key recommendations outlined in the report.
The new IAATW report not only identifies the problems as articulated by workers from Jakarta to Los Angeles and Bogota to Acra, but it also offers a critical analysis of past ILO actions over the last two decades during which time the platform sector grew dramatically. In 2006, the ILO adopted Recommendation 198, originally aimed at extending labour standards to informal and (potentially) platform workers. Since then, platform companies have grown exponentially without corresponding expansion of protections, and 2 billion informal workers and 154 million app-based workers have been left without access to labour rights. “Where did we go wrong with R.198?” asked Biju Mathew, President IAATW. “Instead of expanding the definition of employment to encompass new technological frames we accepted the most restrictive definitions imaginable, thereby allowing for the expansion of the category of self-employment and independent contractorship. We need to be clear that the convention and recommendation for the platform sector, that we will move forward through unified labour action in this double discussion turns the balance of power around and empowers workers across the world.” he added.
IAATW recommendations aim to help the ILO avoid similar shortfalls in this round of standard setting. In summary, the IAATW global report, the regional grassroots reports and the Dutch NCP’s final statement recommend key areas for building new standards at the 113th and 114th ILC.
Figure 2 The rise of multinational platform enterprises after ILO R. 198 (2006)
Wages and Remuneration
The Dutch NCP recommended that Uber work towards documented living wage standards in all areas where it operates. Shaik Salauddin, General Secretary of IAATW affiliate Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), was a party to the complaint and welcomed the recommendation: “The South Asia Shadow Report that we prepared for the ILC articulates a similar living wage recommendation and we’re glad to see the Dutch NCP arrive at the same.”
Omar Parker, General Secretary of the Western Cape E-Hailing Association—one of the IAATW affiliates behind the Sub-Saharan Consultative Report—urged ILC delegates to: “Take up the goal of a living wage in the proposed ILO convention. In our consultative report we have identified the problem of joint and several employment for app-based work and urge the ILC to address this to build better standards for remuneration for platform workers.”
Deactivation / Termination by Algorithm
The issue of driver and rider deactivation was central to the IAATW complaint submitted to the Dutch NCP and continues to be a recurring concern in worker testimony. The NCP expressed dissatisfaction with Uber’s practices and pointed to “potential for significant risks related to the use of artificial intelligence.” It highlighted shortcomings in Uber’s communication and recommended: “Uber should communicate clearly what it expects from drivers in terms of behaviour, what are the reasons for deactivation, and other rules for staying on the Platform.”
The NCP also urged: “Uber’s policies on deactivation and blocking should be transparent for drivers, and drivers should have access to a legitimate grievance mechanism where they can appeal against the deactivation decision.”
Taha Sayafarll, from IAATW’s Indonesian affiliate Asosiasi Driver Online, appreciated the NCP’s clarity: “We have been calling for a Just Cause and Due Process Framework from the platform companies for a long time. Our Southeast Asia Shadow Report has clearly said that Deactivation through algorithms and other forms of algorithmic controls operates as a menace on the lives of workers and is a violation of the ILO Convention on Forced Labour.”
Nothing More Than Ordinary Businesses and Management Obligations
IAATW reports also address issues of corporate governance. App-based transport workers challenge the corporate narrative that apps are somehow distinct from traditional business operations.
Damaris Gordon of Panama’s Unión Nacional de Conductores de Plataformas Digitales y Similares (UNCOPLADIS) called on the ILC to properly classify workers: “Uber and other platform companies must not be allowed to hide behind terms like ‘partners’, ‘dashers’ or ‘entrepreneurs’ and deny us justice.”
The IAATW report also incorporates recommendations from the Dutch government aimed at improving labour and human rights practices at Uber Technologies, Inc. The Dutch NCP’s final statement outlines several areas that could shape ILO decision-making. The NCP found that Uber failed to adequately engage with workers and their representatives and recommended the company ensure meaningful engagement with independent unions at all relevant levels.
“We find much that is valuable in the NCP’s final statement. The Dutch Government must carry these standards into the ILC and give it leadership in the construction of a convention.” — Biju Mathew, President, IAATW
Regarding the lack of mediation, Mr.Mathew added: “We raised our issues to the Dutch NCP in 2021 after spending over eight months recording detailed testimonies from the membership of seven affiliates. Uber did not agree to participate in the mediation process offered by the NCP and instead, signed several secret contracts with unions that no worker has seen or ratified to date.”
The Dutch NCP will assess Uber’s progress including engagement with independent worker organisations in one year.
Assessing this moment on the eve of the 113th ILC, Nicole Moore, President of Rideshare Drivers United, California said: “Let’s make this year a year of unified labour action. It begins with the 2025 ILC and continues till the NCP recommendations are met and an ILO standard that empowers workers is adopted. Nothing less.”
Read the full report here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cmUalB7iH9yjYmMu43cfprwX-Xr7UrBq/view?usp=drive_link