It was mid-2018 and I needed a job. For five years in a row, I waited tables and worked in the food industry. But, like many others, I became unemployed. 

Just then, someone pointed to all those folks cycling around Palermo with colourful boxes attached to their backs.

"You'll be your own boss", they said. "You'll set your own schedule," they said. The perks quickly caught my attention: time flexibility, freedom. So I signed up, did the training and hopped on the bike. Since then, I have been a digital platform worker, delivering food products in Buenos Aires.

Actually, that is what I do for a living. This is who I am: an Argentine woman in my  thirties, living with my parents in their apartment in Almagro neighbourhood. I am a single mother of a 9 year old boy, a medical lab student, and former Deputy Secretary of the "Asociación de Personal de Plataformas" (APP, Spanish for Platform Staff Association), the first workers’ organization that represents digital platform workers in my country, which advocates for better working conditions in our sector. 

María Belén's story is a common one for many digital platform workers around the world.

Time to deliver in Argentina: Decent work in digital labour platforms

This is what my daily routine looks like: I have virtual classes early in the morning until noon. Then work until 4 pm. I go back home. I eat. I help my son with his homework. Spend some time with him. Once again, I go back to work around 8 pm, until midnight. I try to complete eight full hours of work each day. It’s quite stressful and the pandemic has made it more intense.

Like any other job, this one has pros and cons. You can organize your working hours to suit your personal life, although the platform demands that you work at specific times, or else. Penalties will lower your scoring and negatively affect your access to future orders. And that's what gets us paid: the number of delivered orders, regardless of how many hours you are available for the app.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, demand grew considerably. The government said that delivery work was essential, next to key activities such as public health and transportation, among others.

In fact, platform workers have been contributing greatly during this crisis, making it easier for people to avoid being in the streets unless they absolutely have to. It sounds nice to take part in essential work, but having decent work would be much nicer.

María Belén Fierro is inspired by her son in her quest to improve working conditions for everyone.

Treated by the companies as independent contractors, most of us have no social protection benefits, such as pension coverage, health or insurance plans. 

Sick days? Paid leave? Occupational hazard coverage? It is wishful thinking for now, even when our risks are high.

Keeping her equipment disinfected is crucial to keeping herself and her family safe.

Exposed to traffic and compelled to speed up, we pick up and drop off goods, handle cash and follow strict sanitary protocols to secure our own and other people's health. And all without access to public sanitary facilities. We constantly use hand sanitizers and facemasks that companies provide to their workers, yet insufficiently.

Checking the application often is crucial to not missing possible jobs.

The concerns and claims of digital platform workers are gaining more and more visibility. Nowadays, our main priority is protecting our source of income. 

Our organization is making efforts to improve digital platform working conditions. Because of the pandemic, it has been difficult to meet and organize, though we keep connected across social networks, email and messaging apps.

Social networks, email and messaging apps have become a vital tool in organizing and protecting workers rights.

I am certain that digital platform work is here to stay. It will continue growing, and it will reshape labour markets in the near future.

That is precisely its opportunity: to become the catalyst of positive transformation by securing decent work and providing basic labour rights to all employees, like in any other sector. This is our goal and this will be our achievement.

Work on delivery platforms in Argentina: Analysis and policy recommendations

Delivery work during a pandemic: delivery platform workers in Argentina

Legal analysis on labor relations in home delivery services through digital platforms in Argentina

World Employment and Social Outlook 2021: The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work

ILO Topic Portal: Digital labour platforms

InfoStory: Can digital labour platforms create fair competition and decent jobs?

In Argentina, digital platforms are a recent phenomenon. By July 2020 there were four food-delivery companies operating in Buenos Aires, most of them having started their activity after 2017. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the Argentine government considered these services to be essential activities.

According to an ILO global survey, workers flexible work schedules, freedom to choose tasks and the choice to work anytime anywhere make platforms popular.

Many workers join platforms to earn additional income or due to lack of other employment opportunities

Platforms offer traditional businesses new ways to outsource a variety of tasks, services and retail activities, which improves their organizational performance. They also help start-ups grow, and allow some enterprises to reorient their businesses and access wider markets.

Solutions to the challenges are cropping up around the world, including a collective bargaining agreement that allows cleaning workers to be recognized as employees in Denmark, a judicial decision extending safety and health legal standards to platform workers in Brazil and the ‘right to disconnect’ and obtain a ‘decent price’ for gig work in France.

In 2020, Buenos Aires included digital delivery platforms in its Transit and Transportation Code by modifying the so-called “delivery law”, which had regulated the activity of urban courier or home delivery of food substances since 2016.

In 2020, the Argentine Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security presented a draft bill which places couriers under the protection of labour and social security law.

2 out of 3 digital platform workers surveyed by the ILO in Argentina say they have received virtual training from companies on hygiene practices, social distancing, safety and risk prevention measures.

Some Chilean platform companies have introduced forms of sickness coverage for riders unable to continue working. Examples include the creation of an "emergency fund" – equivalent to two weeks average pay - to support workers infected with COVID-19 or having been forced to quarantine.

For digital platform workers, considered to be essential in many countries, the COVID-19 outbreak increased their vulnerability and lack of protection. The silver lining: with decent work, the pandemic could drive a positive digital transformation.

Time to deliver: Decent work in digital labour platforms

ILO FoW Podcast - WESO 2021.mp3

How will digital labour platforms transform the world of work?

The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work

Can digital labour platforms create fair competition and decent jobs?

Rapid growth of digital economy calls for coherent policy response

The growth of digital labour platforms is presenting opportunities and challenges for workers and businesses around the world. Uma Rani, Senior Economist at the ILO and author of the World Employment and Social Outlook report 2021, explains the need for dialogue and regulatory cooperation in order to provide decent work opportunities in the sector. She is joined by several platform workers who share their experiences and hopes for the future of their work.

My name is Padma and I come from Vashi, a small hamlet in Nepal’s far-west Kanchanpur district. All my family was working on a farm as bonded labourers. People call us Haliyas. 

We were working for the landlord to pay off our debt. This debt came from my parents or maybe my grandparents, I don’t know... But it has never been paid so we continued to work without being paid. All we received from the landlord was a sack of rice and a pair of clothes for a whole year of work. We did not have the freedom to leave him or to make our own decisions. 

You know, I never went to school, I was only able to sign my name and do small transactions.

As bonded labourers... all we received from the landlord was a sack of rice and a pair of clothes for a whole year of work.

In 2008 the Nepalese government abolished the Haliya system and said we were free. But my people still struggle to find work and means of subsistence.

My life changed when I was offered intensive skills training to grow off-seasonal vegetables and further trainings on business and life skills. 

My family has always worked on the farm, however I realized that we did not know that many things about farming. The training was very useful to learn about seeds, different types of soils, ways to enrich it and the appropriate amount of fertilizer and water that needs to be applied. As a result of the training, I now understand why direct sunlight should be avoided in vegetable farming. Earlier, we took farming for granted and blamed the seed or weather for poor yields.

It's very rewarding to grow and sell my own vegetables.   

Eventually I leased a small plot of land from my neighbours in order to grow vegetables. 

The first time I went to the bazaar to sell vegetables, I was awfully nervous. My heart swelled with excitement and anxiety. A flurry of questions filled my mind… What if a customer hands me a big bank note and I cannot give them change? It was a very special day for me, the first day of sales after having started my own business of growing and selling vegetables.                                                                                                                                                                                         

It was a very special day for me, the first day of sales after having started my own business of growing and selling vegetables. 

Now I feel I can look at the future with hope. 

Demand for off-seasonal vegetables is high in the market, especially, cucumber and tomatoes. Sometimes, people visit my farm to buy fresh produce directly. Even though I don’t sell vegetables every day, I am still saving some money! 

The ILO Forced Labour Protocol commits governments to take effective measures to prevent forced labour and provide assistance to victims.  Fifty countries have already ratified the Protocol.

Padma Kumari Tamata was one of 25 women, all former Haliyas identified by the Rastriya Haliya Mukta Samaj Federation and trained in vegetable farming by the Human Resources Centre Bajura, Nepal.

The training is supported by the ILO Bridge Project, which is funded by the US Department of Labor.

600 former bonded labourers received training in 14 different trades, including plumbing, tailoring, masonry, house painting, mobile repairing, motorbike repairing, and the beauty trade. 

More than 60 per cent of trainees started their own businesses.

More than half of trainees began earning income for the first time in their lives.

Women trainees were able to break into traditionally male-dominated trades such as motorbike repairing. 

Padma Kumari Tamata was born into a bonded labour family, in which debts are passed from one generation to the other.  Her life has turned around following ILO-supported skills training in Nepal that aims to rehabilitate former victims of forced labour and empower vulnerable groups.

A future with hope, free from bonded labour

Mendy Lerato Lusaba, founder of the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe and winner of the ILO Skills Innovation Challenge has big plans to improve the life of domestic workers in her country.

In traditional Zimbabwean culture, new mothers are given a domestic worker to help around the house. So, when I had my first child, my in-laws, naturally, brought me a helper. She was only 16 years old. That’s when I became a decent work advocate without even knowing it. 

I was a young professional, I had a background in labour law and human resources management, I knew it was illegal, I knew it was wrong. So I set out to change things. 

It took some time. At first, I wanted to find my own domestic worker, someone I could hire professionally. It turned out to be very difficult, given that the hiring of underage girls is very much ingrained in the culture. So, I decided to create an employment agency and that’s when I realized that the situation was much worse than I thought. 

I discovered that domestic workers were abused and overworked. Zimbabwe had legislation that covered domestic workers but there was little knowledge about it.

Founder, Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe 

It was a dimension of the economy, a whole side of the everyday life of the country,  which I felt was not valued enough. Requests for assistance, from both domestic workers and employers, kept coming back to the employment agency. 

After losing my corporate job in 2018, I decided to make a change and officially established the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe (DWAZ). I said to myself, “Let me just follow my passion. Even if it does not bring me enough money, at least I’ll be doing what I enjoy.”

Mendy Lerato Lusaba, founder of the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe

Let me give you some facts and numbers, so you understand what we have to deal with. Domestic work is one of the oldest and most important occupations in many countries. There are an estimated 63 million domestic workers worldwide with over 80 per cent being women. 

A legalised system of labour relations was established in the 1980s together with the formation of a domestic workers' union, the Zimbabwe Domestic and Allied Workers Union (ZDAWU), which since then advocates for the rights of domestic workers, helps with employment contract issues and follow-ups in the event of a fall-out.

Despite these fundamental steps, the situation on the ground remains difficult. For instance, in Zimbabwe, it is common practice to engage underage girls as 'helpers' at home in return for 'care'. When they can’t find work here, many of them move – or are trafficked – to other countries, like South Africa and Botswana, to work as domestic workers. 

In Zimbabwe, it is common practice to engage underage girls as 'helpers' at home in return for 'care'. When they can’t find work here, many of them move – or are trafficked – to other countries.

Founder, Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe

At DWAZ, we believe we can contribute to a better quality of life for domestic workers. We start by addressing the psychological consequences of a challenging working situation, and we help them improve their day-to-day life. We very much feel the need to support and empower these workers, to give them other options in terms of social inclusion and career progression and to make them understand they are not alone.  

I want to build a training centre that, connected with the existing institutions that share the same vision, can contribute to this goal. A space with a dedicated housekeeping class, a childcare room, a swimming pool, a pet care area, a modern kitchen, a garden as well as other aspects related to domestic worker training. After winning the ILO Skills Innovation Challenge, I’m one step closer to making this a reality. 

I want all vocational training centres in Zimbabwe to have domestic work as part of their courses. People need to know that you can go to a school for domestic work. A qualified domestic worker can perform the job better and, at the same time, land jobs that offer better working conditions and wages. 

And if she or he earns more money, that worker will be able to send children to better schools, buy medicine, purchase proper clothes. When we empower domestic workers we are also helping their family and their community.

My vision goes beyond Zimbabwe. African countries rely greatly on domestic workers and share similar challenges. If we run a domestic workers training centre successfully in Zimbabwe, we can also do it in South Africa, Botswana, or Zambia. Wherever it’s needed.

Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe wins the ILO Skills Innovators Challenge

Q & A on Convention No. 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers

ILO Country Office for Zimbabwe and Namibia

One in 25 women workers in the world is a domestic worker

Domestic workers comprise a significant part of the global workforce in informal employment and are among the most vulnerable groups of workers

2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) and Recommendation (No. 201)

The Convention aims at protecting and improving the working and living conditions of domestic workers worldwide, and covers areas such as remuneration, hours of work, and social security.

The Convention also provides for special measures to address the vulnerability of particular groups of domestic workers: young domestic workers – those above the minimum age of employment and below 18 years of age – live-in domestic workers, as well as migrant domestic workers. 

Mendy Lerato Lusaba, founder of the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe and winner of the ILO Skills Innovation Challenge, has big plans to improve the life of domestic workers in her country.

A domestic worker at work in a private home in Zimbabwe.

A vision for domestic workers

When I was approached by the ILO to take part in the Music Against Child Labour Initiative, I was super excited because this is something I genuinely believe in, child labour needs to be eradicated.

I got into music a few years back. I wanted to see if I could make a difference on the Sri Lankan music scene. I collaborate with the composer Charitha Attalage and a few other artists. It’s a different kind of experimental music that we have been doing, a fusion between modern electronic and classical Sri Lankan. We have a loyal fan base in Sri Lanka and also a few abroad. So it keeps growing.

Sri Lankan singer donates song to help eliminate child labour

I think child labour needs to be eradicated from the world so that children are able to spend their childhood the way it should be spent. 

I have always been very passionate about the importance of education for a child.

At the moment, Sri Lanka is in a much better place compared to the region. However we still have about 40 000 children currently in child labour. They are deprived of their education and their basic rights as a child.  

Community work with children is something I have done for the past ten years. 

I work with children with disabilities and children who are underprivileged, through music, dancing and community work. 

Collaborating with the ILO was an amazing opportunity for me to give back to the community in the way that I know, through music.

We performed the song “Let them fly” on national television on 12 June 2019, which is World Day Against Child Labour.  

Our song addresses adults and pleads them not to clip the wings of a child before they even learn to fly. It summarizes the whole idea of what we are trying to say about education, basic human rights, and children having a childhood rather than working.

පුංචි අත්තටු | Let Them Fly | சிறகை விரித்து

The lyrics play a huge role. The reason to do it in all three languages, Sinhalese, Tamil and English, was to address a larger audience rather than focus on only one community. We wanted everybody to understand it, relate to the cause, and also reach out to an international audience.

Having the children’s choir as part of the song also adds a lot and I think touches the heart of the audience as well.

Music can talk to a wider audience and I think it will reach a lot of hearts. 

Children are the future of this country. We have a few more steps to go.  I think by way of music we’ll be able to convince a lot of people, convey the message and create more awareness to end child labour.

“Let them fly” has been watched over 150,000 times on social media.

40,000 children remain in child labour in Sri Lanka, mainly in the service sector.

They are predominantly in hazardous and at times hidden forms of child labour, posing a challenge to its complete   eradication.

The Government has worked with local and international partners to tackle the issue systematically.

In 2018, Sri Lanka became a “Pathfinder Country” under the Alliance 8.7 partnership that brings together countries and organizations to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating all forms of child labour by 2025.

Sri Lankan music star Ridma Weerawardena talks about his hit song "Let them fly" and why he decided to join the fight against child labour.

A song to let children fly

Learning how to cook is so much more than learning a trade. Food arouses powerful memories and feelings, because it‘s something you can bring to your family and friends, because it involves how you relate to your environment. 

Learning how to cook is about changing your life.  

This is just what I hope to achieve with “Kitchen & Voice”. It’s a joint initiative of the Brazilian Public Ministry of Labour and the International Labour Organization, that helps give the most marginalized people – the homeless, abused women, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people – the chance to have a real job.  

I’ve been doing this since December 2017. The initial idea was to give cooking classes in a prison in Salvador de Bahia.  But I thought a training programme would be a gateway to the restaurant industry. In Brazil, people love eating out – it accounts for 3 per cent of GDP. 

And that’s how we started, in Sao Paulo, with a group of 30 transgender participants. We’ve grown since then and now we give an average of four classes a year in different states with 50 to 60 people per class. This year we had to do the training online, due to the pandemic. But we did it anyway. 

The course involves classes in nine disciplines and provides the basic skills for work in a restaurant kitchen, including salad dressing techniques, preparation of fish, meat and vegetables, waste handling and food storage. 

I make a point of using local ingredients like manioc, rice and bananas, that are easy to obtain and also have links to the roots of indigenous cuisine. They are part of a heritage that is being lost. And we don’t cook meat.

Since food can be extraordinarily evocative, during their training some of our students rediscovered flavours from dishes their mothers or grandmothers used to make. Some brought the food they cooked to their families, with whom they had sometimes not spoken for years. 

Perhaps my own background has helped me to understand the people who join the classes. I was born in Argentina into a family of Italian immigrants.  My mother was a lawyer. She gave me a great sense of justice. A sense of urgency too, that something had to be done to help others. I have been a cook for 30 years and although I have been successful, I never forget that those who work in the kitchen usually come from very humble origins.

I do believe diversity is the best ingredient, in cooking and in life. Working with people from very different backgrounds enriches you as a person.

In the last four years, we have managed to bring many participants into jobs offered by a network of partner companies. Two of them work in my restaurants. 

I think it shows a change towards more diversity in companies’ corporate culture, because I do believe diversity is the best ingredient, in cooking and in life. Working with people from very different backgrounds enriches you as a person. 

It hasn’t been easy. But thanks to the support of the ILO, the funding from the Ministry of Labour and also the fact that I am a well-known chef, we’ve managed to overcome many prejudices.

The next thing I want to do is help more companies participate in the project. Perhaps by giving them incentives, such as tax breaks or some kind of a rating system that would show they are involved in a project favouring the inclusion of vulnerable people. 

I truly hope we will encourage other businesses to join “Kitchen & Voice” and help to promote the employability of a very talented, but still largely excluded, portion of the population. 

ILO helps open doors to labour market for LGBTI people in Brazil

Brazilian Public Ministry of Labour and ILO establish strategic alliance 

The Public Ministry of Labour (MPT) in Brazil

ILOSTAT blog: A call for LGBT labour statistics

ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work 

Around 80 countries have laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics. 

However, many LGBTI people continue to face high levels of discrimination, violence, harassment, persecution and stigma, including in the workplace.

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work includes a commitment to fight all forms of discrimination.

To effectively promote decent work for the LGBTI community, more statistical data is needed to find out the extent of the discrimination they face and the different forms it takes. 

The Argentinian celebrity chef, Paola Carosella, explains why she joined the ILO’s “Kitchen and Voice” project, which helps marginalized and vulnerable people in Brazil find work in the hospitality sector.

Diversity is the best ingredient

My name is Viorica Anghel from Andrușul de Jos village. I use honey in many natural health remedies, and was always buying it, so I thought I might as well produce it myself!

With the help of the International Labour Organization I benefited from a beekeeping project where I received instruction and lessons from an older more experienced mentor. 

Bees - a remedy for business success

The training was so interesting and useful, that in those several weeks of the course I didn't miss a lesson. I had the feeling that I had read a library full of books on beekeeping.

My instructor Sergiu Paslaru is very helpful - no matter the time of day, he is always willing to answer any questions. 

I decided to participate in the project because of my disability, but also because of my child, who has health problems. 

In the beginning we were upset when the bees stung us.  But gradually we learned more about them and now we have become attached to them and them to us.

I use honey and bee-derived products to make many natural remedies for colds, bone pain and so on.

I treat my son, Gabriel, with honey vinegar when he gets sick. 

These projects are most welcome. It provides a means to support yourself - and I don’t mean just for me, now, but for any young person. This would be an opportunity for them not to have to go abroad for work, but to develop a small business in their own country.

With the grant I received, I was able to set up a small family business. 

The most valuable thing that I acquired participating in the Local Employment Partnership project, besides knowledge and financial aid, was the confidence that all those involved in this project offered to me and now I am determined to transmit this feeling to other people.

At the moment, I feel like I have wings! I gained a lot of self-esteem and dignity.

Local Employment Partnership – Cahul District

Regular Budget Supplementary Account (RBSA)

Viorica hopes to produce half a tonne of honey in 2021 with an estimated income of USD 2,000.  She aims to double that again in 2022.

She is one of 882 beneficiaries of the first Local Employment Partnership (LEP) in the Cahul district in southern Moldova, a pilot project funded by the ILO's Regular Budget Supplementary Account (RBSA).

Launched in April 2019, Cahul LEP has brought together over 20 public and private partners at national and local level, who, with the assistance of the ILO, are improving the local labour market. 

The aim is to create and formalize jobs, and to identify business development opportunities for youth and   persons with disabilities in the Cahul district.

Viorica Anghel transformed her life when she signed up for a beekeeper’s course run by the ILO in Moldova.  She now runs her own business and uses the honey for medicinal purposes to treat her son.

My name is Min Min. I left school when I was in the third grade. I dreamt about being a teacher.  I'm now about 13 years old.

I live with my uncle and aunt.  I came here last summer. In the morning when I wake up, I go out to look for jade stones. In the evening I go out again around 10pm. Looking for the stones is very tiring. The ones I find are small.

Myammar: Children at risk in jade stone scavenging

The most valuable jade stone I’ve ever found was worth about Kyat 100,000 (about USD100).

We risk our lives for those stones. A man died last night. I saw it with my own eyes.

It depends on the size of the stones we find, but if it’s very big the mining company takes half of what we earn from us. We risk our lives for those stones. A man died last night. I saw it with my own eyes.

The Hpakant area of Myanmar is known as the “land of jade”. 

A piece of polished jade stone in the palm of a hand.

I have seen others take drugs and become addicts. I don’t want to do drugs. I like football and chinlone (the national sport of Myanmar). Sometimes I play them in the afternoon.

Min Min puts his shoes on in preparation to go jade scavenging.

My parents live elsewhere. My dad also scavenges for jade stones. My mum stays home to cook and clean. I have six siblings. My young brother is at school. I don’t want him to quit. I want him to become an educated person.   

I am saving my money. When I grow up I want to own a house and take care of my parents.

2021: International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour

Jade picking is hazardous work. Nearly 200 people died in a mudslide at a jade mining site in Hpakant on 2 July 2020.  

1.13 million 5- to 17-year olds are trapped in child labour in Myanmar. This means one in every 11 children is deprived of their childhood, health and education. 

As of 2020 both ILO core conventions on child labour, Conventions 182 and 138, have been ratified by Myanmar. 

Child labour has declined by 55 per cent over the last three years in three target pilot communities with support from the ILO Liaison Office in Myanmar and its partners, including the United States Department of Labor (USDOL).

COVID-19 has exacerbated pressure on vulnerable families. The ILO in Myanmar is working closely with communities in targeted areas to help families deal with income loss due to the pandemic and ensure children are not sent to work. 

In 2021, countries around the world will mark the UN’s International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, and the Government of Myanmar will work closely with the ILO and employer and worker organizations to strengthen its National Action Plan to eliminate child labour.

There is a real opportunity to protect children like Min Min if everyone plays their part. 

Min Min is 13 and scavenges for scraps of jade stone in northern Myanmar, “the land of jade”.  It’s a hazardous undertaking.  In 2020 nearly 200 people died from a mudslide at a nearby mining site.

First-person perspectives on the world of work

Time to deliver: Decent work in digital labour platforms

Latest stories

A future with hope, free from bonded labour

Padma Kumari Tamata

A vision for domestic workers

Mendy Lerato Lusaba

A song to let children fly

Ridma Weerawardena

Diversity is the best ingredient

Paola Carosella

Bees - a remedy for business success

Viorica Anghel

Child labour in Myanmar’s jade mines is a deadly gamble

Min Min

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The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work

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