Adopted in June 2026, the ILO Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, 2026 (No. 193) is the first global labour standard devoted to platform work. The Convention marks an important step in regulating the sector, while also addressing a broader concern: the use of algorithmic management in the world of work.
A 2025 OECD employer survey, covering 6,047 managers across six countries, found that 90 per cent of US managers and, on average, 79 per cent of managers in the European countries surveyed worked in firms using at least one algorithmic management tool. These tools allocate tasks and schedules, monitor working time, communications and many other decisions in the workplace.
Although they may make management faster and more consistent, they can also leave workers unable to understand how consequential decisions were reached or obtain meaningful review. According to the same survey, nearly two-thirds of managers using such tools reported at least one concern about their trustworthiness.
This expansion into traditional workplaces, examined by Aloisi, Joppe and Abraha as part of the wider “spillover effect” of algorithmic management, creates a regulatory mismatch. Workers may be exposed to comparable forms of automated control, yet receive different safeguards depending on whether they work through a digital platform or within a conventional organisation.
Convention No. 193 formally applies to digital labour platforms, and its binding effect...
Jang, in his 40s, who also runs a beauty salon and works as an insurance planner, registered himself as a caregiver for insured A, an insurance customer, in April. Afterwards, Jang filed a documen...