By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – The Governments, employers, and workers from the 187 ILO Member States on Friday met in Geneva for the International Labour Organization’s annual conference.
The potential pitfalls of online platforms will be one key area for debate, as countries mull reforms to protect workers and promote development, ILO stated.
The agency said that digital platforms have grown rapidly in recent decades in line with the gig economy, boosting online education, tourism and transport, for example.
The businesses that use digital platforms offer flexibility for workers, there’s concern that they don’t offer enough social protection or decent conditions, it stressed
According to senior ILO official Angelika Muller, many online workers lack protections as part of the informal economy.
As a result, many face poor working conditions while many employers use algorithms to evaluate worker performance.
Member States are expected to agree on new ways to help countries transition from the informal to the formal economy and address the issue of health dangers from exposure to biological hazards at work, it concluded.
