EU Statement - 113th ILC - Standard-Setting Committee: Realizing Decent Work in the Platform Economy Opening Statement

European Union 

Statement 

International Labour Conference
113^th session

 (2^nd June – 13^th June 2025) 

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Standard-Setting Committee: 

Realizing Decent Work in the Platform Economy

Opening Statement – Committee

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Geneva, 2 June 2025

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EU Opening Statement

Standard-Setting Committee: Platform Economy

Geneva, 2 June 2025

Chair,

1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova*, the EFTA country Norway member of the European Economic Area align themselves with this statement.

2. We are grateful to the ILO Office for the work put into the white and yellow reports and for the proposed draft instruments which provide a good basis for starting negotiations. 

    

3. The platform economy is an emerging development, offering significant potential to create employment opportunities - particularly for individuals who may otherwise face barriers to entering the labour market. As the platform economy continues to evolve, it is essential to ensure that these jobs are held to the same decent work standards as other forms of employment. 

    

4. The protection, promotion and fulfilment of fundamental principles and rights at work is an essential pre-requisite for ensuring that decent work can be a reality for all workers in the platform economy.   

    

5. Ensuring the correct classification of workers is crucial for safeguarding their rights, especially given evidence of the misclassification of the employment status of persons performing platform work. In this regard, we welcome the article on employment relationship, including the reference to Recommendation 198 and the emphasis on the primacy of facts. We believe that no category of digital labour platform should be completely excluded from the protection of this instrument.

    

6. In many countries around the world, the rights, obligations, and flexibilities associated with different forms of work—such as employment, self-employment or other work categories—can differ considerably. It is therefore important that any future instrument seeks to protect workers’ rights, respects the specific characteristics of genuine self-employment and supports the sustainable growth of the platform economy, and takes into account the diversity of national regulatory frameworks and national labour market models. Some provisions – such as those concerning remuneration, working time, social protection, and non-fundamental aspects of occupational safety and health – do not currently accommodate these differences. We look forward to an open and constructive dialogue on how best to reflect these considerations, in a manner that promotes coherence with international labour standards while respecting national systems.

    

7. The use of automated systems is a defining feature of platform work and must be properly addressed. While algorithms are crucial to enable the opportunities of the platform economy, they also pose significant risks, such as lack of transparency, constant monitoring, risks to privacy, opaque decision-making and the potential misclassification of workers due to hidden forms of control. Human oversight is essential to prevent rights infringements, and major decisions affecting workers should always involve human review. Informing workers and their representatives about the impact of automated systems is crucial for transparency and predictability, and strong safeguards must be in place to protect personal data.

    

8. We believe additional measures should be included in the instruments to ensure that workers have the opportunity to associate freely and can exercise their right to collective bargaining and to promote work formalisation.  

    

9. We welcome the dedicated sections on occupational safety and health, and violence and harassment. We believe that digital labour platforms can play a significant role in creating new decent employment and a safe working environment.

    

10.  If the above-mentioned considerations can be taken into account, we believe that a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation is an appropriate way to set minimum standards worldwide. Given that platforms are operating often across borders, minimum international standards will help contribute to a level playing field globally. Considering that digital technologies evolve at a fast pace, we are open to discuss a more simplified amendment procedure, however we are looking forward to more information as to the exact modalities of such a procedure before finalising our position in this regard. 

     

11. Lastly, we thank the Office for its proposed conclusions. We believe that the text   in front of us is a good basis for the upcoming discussions, and we look forward to starting this important work in close collaboration with all constituents.

Thank you, Chair.

*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.