Lena Simet (Human Rights Watch) on platform work: From turbo-capitalism to just working conditions

3 April 2025

How can we ensure that platform companies in the gig economy behave as responsible employers and clients, rather than greedy intermediaries who make ever-increasing profits and pass the risks and costs of doing business on to workers? Trade unions, labour organisations, and governments around the world are looking for a solution to this problem.

This includes Human Rights Watch, an international organisation that investigates human rights violations worldwide. In recent years, senior economic justice advisor Lena Simet has been specifically studying the rights impact and economic fairness of platform companies on workers. I spoke to her about her research on The Gig Work Podcast by the WageIndicator Foundation. Her conclusions provide a good overview of developments and opportunities from a global perspective. 

Legal vacuum

Simet studied the impact of taxi, food delivery, and grocery shopping apps on platform workers in Lebanon, Texas, and New York, among other places. “Technology for organising work has developed rapidly, but legislation to protect workers’s rights on platforms is desperately lagging behind,” she says. “It’s a legal vacuum: platform workers are not formally employed, so the work and earnings are their own responsibility. Almost all the labour rights that have been fought for in the past seem to be non-existent in this business model.”

She thinks this is unfair. Her interest in platform work arose during the coronavirus crisis. “Platform workers were the heroes: they took to the streets to deliver meals or groceries, they worked in healthcare,” she says. “Everyone was happy with them, but that appreciation was not reflected in their working conditions. Many were not given face masks or hand sanitizers, and if they fell ill themselves, they received no compensation or paid leave.”

‘Working without protection should not become the new norm’

Meanwhile, the reach of platform work is growing enormously. “Platform workers are no longer just taxi drivers or food delivery workers,” she says. “Now you also see nurses, teachers, and therapists being hired on demand via apps. Instead of a permanent contract with fixed shifts, they are now deployed ‘on demand’ with varying hours and earnings.”

An increasing proportion of the global workforce is being hired and fired via platforms, she says. “This increases inequality in the labour market enormously. Our research shows that they have no protection under labor law. That is why new policy is so important. We cannot allow underpayment and lack of protection to become the new norm in the labour market.”

Employee or self-employed: decent work for everyone

Governments around the world are struggling with the legal status of platform workers: are they employees or self-employed workers? Being employed solves a lot of issues: often, job security and protections for employees are legally linked to this type of contract, but in practice, this is difficult to enforce.

In the Netherlands, too, the discussion is far from over. Just look at the latest ruling by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal on whether Uber drivers are formally employed or not. Conclusion: it varies from driver to driver. And in continents such as Asia, Africa, or Latin America, it is not at all common to have an employment contract. In fact, almost half (46%) of the global workforce are self-employed (ILO 2025).

That is why it is perhaps even more important at this point to find an answer to the question: how do we ensure that the risks and costs of self-employed people are covered just as well as those of employees? The biggest problems arise because platforms pass on the costs and risks that are borne by the employer in an employee relationship to the individual.

Platforms weaken individual bargaining power

Human Rights Watch's research shows that action is needed. “We are seeing the consequences of a lack of regulation worldwide,” says Simet. “It is true that professional groups such as cleaners, taxi drivers, and food delivery workers did not usually work as employees even before the advent of platforms. But what has deteriorated is their bargaining power.”

She cites motorcycle taxis in Kenya as an example. “In the past, drivers set their own prices in negotiations with customers. Now, the app determines the price. Drivers no longer have any influence over this, especially since these companies often form monopolies.”

At the same time, platformization offers hope for improvement. “Platforms make workers who were previously invisible visible. If we succeed in forcing these large companies to pay workers decent wages, it will be a huge opportunity to provide millions of workers worldwide with better living standards.”

Lebanon: strong growth since 2019

When I spoke to Simet, she had just returned from Lebanon, where she had been studying the situation of platform workers. To her surprise, there had been hardly any research into the platform economy, even though the business model is growing rapidly there. “Since the economic crisis in 2019, platform work has been the only source of income for many people,” she says. “The group of workers is extremely diverse in terms of age, education level, and occupation.”

What are the consequences of platformization? Four concerning issues stood out to her:

1. Decline in income over time: She spoke to many people who have been working via platforms for a long time, sometimes as long as ten years. During that time, their income has usually declined. Many now receive only a fifth of what they used to earn. This is because there are now many more platform workers. Although prices for customers are rising, the platforms have the freedom to reduce the earnings of workers.
2. Lack of social security: Workers have to bear all costs themselves, have no sick leave, and receive no assistance in the event of accidents at work.
3. The huge gap between workers and companies: Companies are not interested in complaints. Workers can hardly unite to exert pressure.
4. Complete lack of policy. Platform work is not covered at all by current labor legislation.

Traumatic robbery

In the podcast, Simet tells the moving story of 74-year-old taxi driver Abraham. During the crisis, he lost his job, his savings, and his pension. Because of his age, most companies would not hire him, so in 2015 he started working via a taxi app.

One day, while driving, he was robbed at knifepoint by customers. They stole his phone and his car. He sought help from the platform company, but they refused to help him. After all, his contract stated that he was an “independent contractor” (self-employed), so he was entirely responsible for himself. “He was left traumatised and without a car,” says Simet. “With financial help from his family he was able to get by and eventually was gifted a car by his brother, who also helped him. He is working again, but he is still afraid every day.”

According to Simet, this story illustrates how platforms deliberately shift all costs and risks to workers with their business model. “Responsibility and humanity are lacking.” This is despite the fact that platforms, which operate in fragmented markets, could use economies of scale to improve conditions and mitigate risks. Not doing so is a conscious decision and strategy.

Exploitation in Texas

Research is the basis for creating policies around decent working conditions. What minimum protection do platform workers need? What is a Living Wage? Since platform workers are not employed, do not have fixed hours, and must arrange their own resources and security, such a tariff is structured very differently from an employee's wage. Read more about a Living Tariff in this blog.

In May 2025, Human Rights Watch published the report The Gig Trap: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US. It shows that platform workers in Texas are being severely exploited.

$5.12 per hour

“It was very difficult to obtain data because companies are not required to share information about workers who are not employed,” she says. “So we collected information from the platform workers themselves. Initially, we saw a gross hourly wage of $16.90. But that is not what they actually earn from their work.”

Because platform workers have to pay for their own vehicle, phone, and internet, they are left with only $7.53.

If you then deduct the non-wage benefits that a normal employee would receive, you end up with $5.12 per hour. “That's well below the minimum wage of $7.25 and even further below the living tariff,” says Simet. It's important to realise that the minimum wage in Texas is not enough to live on. According to WageIndicator data, the Living Wage in Texas is currently $16.49. And keep in mind that the reported income per worker is an average. There are platform workers who, on days with high expenses and few rides, are left with virtually nothing, the big problem being that workers have no influence on the demand for work and the number of workers active on a platform.

Heartbreaking turbo-capitalism

“I found it heartbreaking to hear platform workers blame themselves for earning so little,” says Simet. “An older woman who shopped groceries for Instacart said, ‘Well, I just can't walk fast enough.’”

She calls it capitalism on steroids. “A person's value and income are determined solely by how quickly profit can be squeezed out of their labor,” she says. “It has nothing to do with fair compensation and creates perverse incentives that force people to risk their health.”

New York: collective action leads to fairer pay

Fortunately, Simet also sees progress. For example, app delivery workers in New York have succeeded in enforcing a minimum tariff. “It's a wonderful example of how collective action leads to change,” she says. “The platform workers first conducted their own research to highlight the problems and presented this to the city council. The council's own research confirmed their findings based on their own research: from extremely low pay to lack of safety and privacy violations.”

New York used this research as the basis for policy reforms. The municipality did not force companies to hire people as employees, but set a minimum tariff for platform workers to compensate for their lack of protection. Despite fierce opposition from platform companies, New York gradually introduced a minimum wage for platform workers.

Discussion about waiting time

There was considerable debate about that tariff. Platform companies argued that they cannot pay for waiting time because workers “have multiple apps open at the same time” and are therefore paid by three different platforms simultaneously.

“In reality, this ‘multi-apping’ is hugely overestimated,” says Simet. "About 80 to 90 percent of platform workers use only one app at a time. What's more, these companies have access to all the data: they can calculate down to the second who is available when. In New York, this has now been resolved: companies must pay for the entire time that workers are connected to the app, including waiting time."

More efficient and fairer

The result? Because platforms are now responsible for waiting time themselves, they have started to plan more efficiently. Since the introduction of the minimum rate in New York, the number of deliveries per hour has risen from 1.6 to 2.5. By placing the responsibility with the platform, the app has a direct incentive to use the worker's time more efficiently.

The conditions for platform workers have improved enormously, says Simet. The city council is now looking at next steps, such as protecting platform workers who are banned from a platform for unclear reasons.

Global problem, global solution?

It is clear that the excesses of the platform economy are a global problem. Although local solutions are now being devised, the International Labor Organization (ILO) is working on a global solution. In June 2026, during the 114th International Labor Conference in Geneva, governments, employers, and employee organizations will work on finalizing the ILO Platform Work Convention. Lena is participating in this process on behalf of Human Rights Watch, and provided written input on a draft of the convention. 

In Geneva, global agreements will be made on platform work, with a focus on social security, transparent algorithms, and the prevention of misclassification. I will also try to attend this conference to report on these negotiations. Whatever the outcome, I believe it is already a significant achievement that governments recognize the importance of this issue and that, contrary to many people's expectations, we have succeeded in putting it on the global agenda. After all, fair working conditions are the responsibility of us all.