A new report by Human Rights Watch has raised concerns over the working conditions and exploitation of millions of gig workers globally. The report, titled “Algorithms of Exploitation: Rights Abuses in the Gig Economy and the Global Fight for Change,” shows how app-based work is increasingly exposing workers to low pay, long hours, insecure working conditions and limited legal protections.
The report found that companies behind these apps control work by using algorithms to assign tasks, set pay, evaluate performance, and deactivate workers. They track workers’ movements in real time, reward high ratings and fast completion times, and prompt workers to respond on demand.
“Workers who decline job offers, receive negative reviews, or fall foul of other thresholds set by the algorithms may find that opportunities dry up, often without explanation and with no clear way to appeal,” the report said.
For the companies that built these systems, the model delivers high returns and low risk. But for workers, digital platforms have rewritten the rules of work, shifting the cost and risk of doing business onto workers themselves while limiting their control over earnings and working conditions.
“Digital labor platforms have created a business model that evades employer responsibilities while keeping workers under tight algorithmic control, driven by opaque and unpredictable decisions,” said Lena Simet of Human Rights Watch in a statement accompanying the report.
The report cited a survey by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which estimated that gig or platform work grew by 90% between 2016 and 2021.
Now, as many as 435 million people worldwide earn income through labor platforms, according to the World Bank. In the European Union, the European Council estimates that 43 million people were engaged in platform work in 2025, a 52% increase since 2022. In Mexico, an estimated 1.2 million people work through platforms; in Kenya, 1.5 million; and in India, around 12 million.
The rules governing platform work are under increasing scrutiny, with governments, workers and companies negotiating the first global standards at the International Labour Organization. Many countries are also introducing their own guardrails.
Platforms manage labor across sectors ranging from taxi and food delivery to logistics, domestic services, care work, and online tasks like data labelling and content moderation.
Many of the largest platforms are multinational corporations operating across dozens of countries. Uber, headquartered in the United States, operates in more than 70 countries. Delivery Hero, headquartered in Germany, operates under a network of subsidiaries, including HungerStation and Talabat, across the Middle East and North Africa.
The report also found that platform companies control workers’ tasks and earnings while classifying them as independent contractors rather than employees, allowing companies to avoid many labor protections and employer obligations.
The organization interviewed platform workers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Lebanon, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Kenya, Mexico, and across the Gulf. Algorithms assign tasks, set pay, and evaluate workers’ performance, while systems track how quickly a worker accepts requests, how long tasks take, and how customers rate the service.
Workers are continuously monitored by platforms but often have little visibility into how algorithms determine pay, rankings, incentives, or account suspensions.
The report also highlighted what a labor and technology expert at the University of California Professor Veena Dubal termed “algorithmic wage discrimination,” where platforms use granular personal data to offer different workers different pay for the same job.
Research cited by Human Rights Watch from Columbia Business School estimated that Uber retained about 42% of what customers in the United States paid in 2024. A separate 2025 study by the National Employment Law Project found that on some trips Uber retained more than 60% of customer payments.
In India, nationwide protests took place in January after major platform companies introduced 10-minute delivery guarantees, prompting the government to move to restrict the practice.
One Delhi-based delivery worker told the organization, “Deliver in ten minutes or your earnings will be cut, your incentives taken away, and you’ll get fined.”
A worker in Nairobi described how suspensions could escalate over time: “It starts with 24 hours, then three days, then longer. Eventually, you can be blocked completely.”
Platform workers are paid per task or trip, but many earn unstable wages below minimum wage standards.
Workers said large shares of their pay go to platform companies, while additional fees and fines are deducted without explanation. They have demanded greater transparency around pay calculations and deductions. The report also highlighted that platform workers are excluded from most social security and labor protection programs.
Workers also expressed fears that retaliation could affect their access to work. In India, the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers, and Gig and Platform Service Workers Union have staged strikes and protests, including against 10-minute delivery models, drawing regulatory scrutiny and responses from state governments.
In 2024, the European Parliament passed a directive on improving conditions in platform work that includes transparency requirements around algorithmic systems and restricts automated firing decisions. European Union member states have until December 2026 to implement the directive into national law.
In June 2025, a majority of governments and worker representatives at the ILO agreed to begin developing the first international standards on platform work. Negotiations are ongoing and expected to conclude at the International Labour Conference in June 2026.
The report calls for stronger government regulations on platform work and greater transparency around how algorithms determine pay, allocate work, and deactivate workers.
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