Workers’ rights advance at 2026 International Labour Conference

The Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, C193, establishes global protections for the more than 150 million workers who earn their living through digital labour platforms. The adoption marks the culmination of negotiations launched at last year’s ILC and represents a major win for trade unions globally.

The Convention sets a precedent for the wider debate on artificial intelligence and the future of work. Platform work has been one of the clearest examples of algorithmic management being used to allocate tasks, monitor performance, determine income and deactivate workers. Too often this has happened without transparency, human review or effective remedies. It’s clear that technological change cannot be used to make workers invisible or place them outside labour protections.

The Convention covers algorithmic management, fair pay, social security and occupational safety and health. And it applies irrespective of a worker’s employment status. One of the Convention’s biggest achievements is its requirement that platform workers be correctly classified, guided by the primacy of facts. This strikes directly at the false autonomy and misclassification that has allowed platforms to deny workers their rights.

The ILC adopted strong conclusions on social dialogue and tripartism. The Workers’ Group secured key gains, including recognition of collective bargaining and freedom of association as fundamental pillars and a commitment to convene a meeting of experts on artificial intelligence and social dialogue. Conclusions also included language on sectoral and cross-border social dialogue.

Conclusions on a transformative agenda for gender equality at work were adopted despite sustained resistance from employers. The US delegation sought to reopen and redefine core gender concepts, complicating the process throughout. Workers’ Group delegates succeeded in defending critical language on psychosocial risks, intersectionality and gender bias in algorithmic and AI systems. Employers had argued that the question of AI gender bias belonged solely in the platform economy discussion.

Demanding accountability on Myanmar

IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie addressed the ILC’s special sitting on Myanmar. The ILO convened the session under the Article 33 procedure invoked against the military junta last year. Atle Høie highlighted the situation of approximately 450,000 garment workers earning less than US$100 per month. They work in factories operating under martial law, face military checkpoints, forced overtime and the risk of conscription. IndustriALL called for an end to preferential trade access for Myanmar, including under the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences and Everything but Arms scheme. IndustriALL reiterated its call for garment brands to commit to a responsible exit from the country.

Belarus: the fight continues

Trade union delegates gathered outside the UN’s Palace of Nations in Geneva on 4 June in solidarity with jailed Belarusian trade unionists. This coincided with Belarus facing a special sitting before the ILC’s Committee on the Application of Standards. Among those present was Aliaksandr Yarashuk, BKDP president, released after three and a half years in prison in Belarus. Dozens of union leaders remain imprisoned on fabricated charges. In the ILO credentials committee, questions were about the legitimacy of the official Belarusian delegation.

Said IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie:

“The ILC delivered real, concrete wins for workers. The platform economy Convention is a breakthrough; the international community has agreed that digital labour platforms must respect workers’ rights. Combined with strong conclusions on social dialogue, collective bargaining and gender equality, this conference demonstrated that tripartism can deliver meaningful outcomes even when powerful actors resist. The attempts by the United States to weaken language on gender equality and social dialogue did not prevail. IndustriALL will continue to hold governments and employers to account on every commitment made here.”