Investors Call for Strong Global Worker Convention to Protect Gig and Platform Workers
Advancing a binding ILO Convention to protect platform workers, prevents a race to the bottom in labor standards, and secures fair, decent work in the digital economy
NEW YORK, NY — The International Labor Organization (ILO) issued its Blue Report last week, which is a draft Convention and Recommendations related to decent work in the platform economy. As investors, we believe the goal of negotiations should be clear: to adopt a Convention and Recommendation that protects workers, and thus helps mitigate operational, legal, and reputational risks, which helps investors, fulfill their fiduciary duty to manage long-term value and protect assets. The Convention must avoid unnecessary caveats or exceptions that weaken its meaning or implementation, and deliver substantive protections that can be applied in practice.
Following this release, ICCR issued an Investor Statement in Support of a Binding Convention on Decent Work in the Platform Economy, supported by 200 investors representing over $2.3 trillion in assets under management and advisement. Investors support the adoption of a robust, binding Convention, supplemented by a Recommendation, promoting decent work in the platform economy at the next International Labour Conference in June 2026. International labor standards create a level playing field across countries and business models, providing legal certainty and reducing regulatory and reputational risks. Investors support a binding international convention that ensures support for labor rights, social protections and dignity for all workers in the platform economy.
The investor statement makes the case that “…effective regulation of platform work can also contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Evidence shows that worker-protective labor laws can have positive impacts on productivity and employment, while helping to reduce earnings inequality. Bringing digital platform companies within national regulatory frameworks can also increase tax revenues and strengthen contributions to social protection systems, benefitting societies as a whole. A strong regulatory framework for platform work could mitigate the systemic social risks that are associated with inequality.”
A recent World Bank report estimated that as many as one in eight workers worldwide are employed through digital platforms, a dramatic increase since 2019. These workers constitute a massive and growing share of the global labor force and are disproportionately impacted by the pitfalls of the current globalized economy including chronic precarity of employment, weakened or non-existent bargaining power and deregulated workplace safety.
In the face of these trends, investors, labor unions and worker advocates have increasingly called for a binding international convention on the rights of gig and platform workers that would establish the sort of clarity, regularity and cohesion across global labor markets to protect platform workers and foster a more durable economic stability worldwide.
Nadira Narine, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
“A strong Convention to secure labor rights for gig and platform work is crucial for safeguarding investments. Exploitative labor practices like low pay that spark labor unrest, misclassification of workers that create legal and regulatory risk, and the opacity that comes with algorithmic management are all a raw deal for workers and create financial and systemic risks that threaten the wider economy. We support a robust, worker-informed Convention to brings dignity, fairness, clarity, and long-term stability to the platform economy.”
Tuy Sythieng, General Secretary of Cambodian Food and Service Workers’ Federation (CFSWF)
“A strong ILO Convention on Platform Work is vital for all platform workers in Cambodia, especially food delivery Workers. Currently, Cambodia lacks specific laws to protect us. Although we are essential to the national economy and company profits, we are often overlooked by both the government and private firms. I truly believe that a strong International Labour Conference (ILC) convention will provide the protection we need to ensure job security, income security, and social protection.”
Father Seamus Finn, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate of the U.S. Province
“Respect for human dignity in work contributes to a successful economic system. Pope Leo himself has placed a strong emphasis on the ‘defense of human dignity, justice and labor’ and has been open about his concerns about the impacts that modern technologies can have on the lives and safety of workers around the world. These concerns will only grow more pressing as technologies that impact the workforce proliferate and platform workers become an ever-increasing share of the global workforce. It is essential global organizations meant to protect the rights and dignity of workers keep these concerns in mind.”
Tamara Hardegger, Managing Director for the Swiss Association for Responsible Investing
“Just as human rights apply universally to all persons, fundamental workers’ rights must be afforded to all workers, irrespective of their designation, categorization, or contractual classification.”
Lucia Lopez, Senior Analyst, Responsible Investing, NEI Investments
“Platform work has intensified vulnerabilities long associated with informal employment, amplifying systemic risks and leaving millions of workers exposed to precarious conditions, opaque algorithmic management, limited social protection, and few avenues for remedy. In an evolving labour market, a strong, binding convention centered on decent work in the platform economy is essential. Strong worker protections are the foundation of a strong economy.”
Vincent Kaufmann, CEO of Ethos
“Institutional investors with long term liabilities and globally diversified portfolios may be exposed to risks linked to weak labor standards fueling inequality, legal uncertainty and social instability. A binding ILO Convention for decent work in the platform economy is therefore not only a human rights responsibility but essential for long term value creation, systemic stability and mitigation of financially material risks.”
Maggie Mthombeni, Organizer, Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance in South Africa
“In a sector notoriously rife with human rights violations and labour exploitation, domestic workers in South Africa have had to fight tooth and nail to earn the right to such basic workplace protections as unemployment insurance (UIF) and workers compensation for injury (COIDA).
As cleaning and care work globally is moving onto digital platorms, an ILO convention will play a critical role in shaping the future of the sector. If proper regulations and enforcement are in place to ensure decent working conditions, platforms actually have the potential to play a positive long-term role in formalising the domestic work sector. However, if loopholes allow companies to continue the current trajectory of exploiting app-based workers, the growing shift towards platform work could potentially strip care workers of those fundamental rights.”
Natalie Wasek, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
“All workers have a right to safe, dignified work, and this requires centering workers’ voices by ensuring they have meaningful power, representation, and leadership in the decisions that shape their working conditions and livelihoods. A strong Convention that is informed by and addresses the concerns of platform workers globally would help ensure that digital labor systems uphold human rights, promote equity and accountability, and center the voices of workers in shaping the future of work.”
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn and Bsky.
