ILO adopts global platform work convention in Geneva
The International Labour Organization adopted the Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention at the 114th International Labour Conference in Geneva on 12 June 2026, according to the ILO vote figures cited in the lead agencies. The convention sets a global labour-standard baseline for digital platform work, including employment-status safeguards, minimum wage enforcement, social protection and rules for app-based management. The ILO’s conference page says the 2026 session brought government, employer and worker representatives from 187 member states together to discuss platform-economy work. For Europe, the decision lands beside the EU’s own Platform Work Directive: the Council of the EU says that directive covers more than 28 million people working through digital labour platforms and requires national rules on employment presumption and algorithmic management. The treaty does not automatically rewrite Belgian law, but it strengthens the international benchmark against which Belgium, EU institutions, platforms and unions will argue future rules.
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About this story
The International Labour Organization (UN specialised agency founded in 1919, headquartered in Geneva) sets international labour standards through conventions and recommendations. The International Labour Conference (annual ILO assembly of governments, employers and workers) adopts those standards and broad policy decisions. The Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention (ILO treaty adopted in 2026, according to the lead agencies) is the new global instrument for app-mediated work. Digital labour platforms (services such as ride-hailing, food delivery or online task platforms) use apps and algorithms to match customers and workers. The Council of the European Union (EU institution representing member-state governments) adopted the EU Platform Work Directive in 2024. Pierre-Yves Dermagne (Belgian deputy prime minister and employment minister during Belgium’s 2024 Council presidency) negotiated the EU compromise. Amanda Brown (vice chair of the ILO Workers’ Group) represented trade-union interests at the ILO talks. Roberto Suarez Santos (secretary-general of the International Organisation of Employers) represented employer organisations.
How to read this story
The history
Platform-work regulation has moved from court disputes to formal rulemaking. The Council of the EU says the Commission proposed the EU Platform Work Directive on 9 December 2021, ministers reached a general approach on 12 June 2023, negotiators agreed a text on 8 February 2024 and the Council adopted it on 14 October 2024. Under Belgium’s Council presidency, Pierre-Yves Dermagne said the March 2024 compromise was the first EU legislation to regulate workplace algorithmic management. The World Bank’s 2023 report framed the wider issue as rapid growth paired with weak social protection, especially outside high-income labour markets.
Why now
The trigger is the closing day of the 114th International Labour Conference in Geneva, where the ILO had placed decent work in the platform economy on the 2026 agenda and, according to the lead agencies, delegates adopted the convention on 12 June 2026.
What to watch
Watch which countries ratify the ILO convention, how the ILO publishes the final convention and recommendation texts, and how EU member states transpose the 2024 Platform Work Directive. For Belgium, the practical signal will be federal draft legislation or guidance on employment presumption, platform reporting and algorithmic decisions.
Local impact
The most local Belgian effect is in urban delivery and ride-hailing markets, especially Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Liège, where app-based courier work is visible and often done by students, migrants and lower-income workers. Nothing changes overnight, but Belgian labour inspectors, social-security bodies and unions gain a stronger international reference when assessing whether platform control amounts to employment.
International angle
The convention globalises an argument Europe has already partly codified: whether platform work should be governed mainly by private contracts or by labour-law protections adapted to algorithmic management. For EU readers, the ILO move matters because it may align pressure from global labour standards with the EU Platform Work Directive now moving through national implementation.
What this means for you
For Belgian platform workers, the immediate practical takeaway is not an automatic new contract but a stronger legal and political reference point. Workers and unions can invoke the ILO standard in campaigns and consultations; platforms should expect closer scrutiny of classification, pay floors, accident protection and automated account decisions; consumers may eventually see higher compliance costs reflected in app prices.
What happens next
ILO conventions only bind countries that ratify them, so the next question is which governments move from adoption to ratification and domestic implementation. Belgium and other EU states will also continue the separate task of incorporating the EU Platform Work Directive into national law within the directive’s timetable. Platforms, unions and labour authorities are expected to focus on employment-status tests, algorithmic transparency and complaint mechanisms.
Potential consequences
If widely ratified, the convention could reduce the ability of platforms to treat employment classification as a purely private contractual choice. It could also push governments to clarify social-security contributions, accident cover, paid leave and algorithmic appeals. For businesses, the likely effect is more compliance cost and less room for divergent national models. For consumers, any impact would probably appear indirectly through delivery fees, service availability or more formalised platform-work relationships.
Opposing perspectives
- ILO Workers’ Group
The ILO Workers’ Group frames the convention as recognition that app-based workers should not fall outside basic labour law because a platform labels them self-employed. Amanda Brown’s intervention, as cited in the lead agencies, presents the standard as a response to documented exploitation and as a way to bring couriers, cleaners and care workers into enforceable international labour protection.
- International Organisation of Employers
The International Organisation of Employers frames the convention’s value in its room for national flexibility. Roberto Suarez Santos’s reaction, as cited in the lead agencies, stresses that countries should be able to determine employment status through their own legal systems, rather than accepting a single global classification rule that could undermine legitimate self-employment or platform business models.
- EU member-state governments
The Council of the EU’s 2024 compromise argues for a middle course: platforms should face a legal presumption of employment when facts show control and direction, but those triggering facts remain anchored in national law and collective agreements. That frame treats misclassification as real while preserving different labour-law systems across the EU.
- Platform companies
The industry position reflected in the 2024 EU debate argues that fragmented national implementation can keep uncertainty high. Uber’s stated preference, reported during the EU compromise debate, was for national laws that protect platform workers while preserving the independence many workers say they value.
Timeline
- 2021-12-09·The Council of the EU says the European Commission published its proposal for the Platform Work Directive.
- 2023-06-12·The Council of the EU says employment and social affairs ministers reached a general approach on the EU directive.
- 2024-02-08·The Council of the EU says negotiators reached a provisional agreement on the EU directive.
- 2024-03-11·The Council of the EU confirmed the platform-work compromise under Belgium’s Council presidency.
- 2024-10-14·The Council of the EU adopted the Platform Work Directive.
- 2026-06-01·The ILO conference page says the 114th International Labour Conference opened in Geneva.
- 2026-06-12·According to the lead agencies, the ILO adopted the Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention.
Glossary
- ILO convention
- A treaty adopted by the International Labour Conference that becomes binding for an ILO member state only after that state ratifies it.
- EU directive
- An EU legal act that sets goals member states must implement through national law, usually within a fixed deadline.
- Legal presumption of employment
- A rule treating a working relationship as employment when defined facts show control or direction, unless the platform proves otherwise.
- Algorithmic management
- The use of automated systems to assign work, set pay, monitor performance, rate workers or restrict access to an app.
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.