FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KENYAN PLATFORM WORKERS UNITE TO DEMAND A CONVENTION THAT GUARANTEES DECENT WORK IN THE PLATFORM ECONOMY AT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE IN GENEVA
Nairobi Kenya, 2 June 2026
Main Address: Frida Mwangi, National Chairperson of Kenya Union of Gig Workers (KUGWO)
We address you today as workers representing seven umbrella bodies: Africa Tech Workers Movement (ATWM), Data Labellers Association (DLA), HomeNet International, Kenya Union of Gig Workers (KUGWO), Women Commercial Drivers Association of Kenya (WCDA-K), and Africa Content Moderators Union.
From 1st to 12th June 2026, the 114th Session of International Labour Conference (ILC) 2026 will take place in Geneva, Switzerland. During this session, it is expected that governments, workers and employers will engage in a tripartite discussion with the goal of coming up with a convention to realize decent work in the platform economy. Some workers from our organizations are already in Geneva representing us and we wish them all the best as they fight for all platform workers.
This is a crucial moment for platform workers. For years, platform workers have been powering tech and AI systems in silence, behind screens, inside apps, and across systems that in return extract and exploit them without rightful compensation. These are the people known as platform workers, the heroes powering our tech.
Platform workers are content moderators, data labellers and annotators who are the workers training the algorithms behind the AI models that are now part of our daily reality. Platform workers are also your ride-hailing workers, your Uber, Bolt, Little Cab, Glovo drivers and delivery workers. They are also your home-based workers, creating products at home and selling them online. They are your content creators and freelancers who rely on global social media platforms and freelance market places to earn a living. We are in the millions, all of us hardworking workers working on digital platforms.
What you may not know is that platform workers have been fighting exploitation by tech platforms for over a decade. The apps they work for have subjected them to unstable and inadequate income, unachievable output quotas, opaque rating systems and algorithm management, extensive surveillance, fraudulent algorithms, unfair deactivations, unlawful deductions of pay, lack of social and occupational protection. They have tied us in a race to the bottom. We started these jobs because of the promise of ‘The Silicon Savannah’ and instead we have found ourselves in a wheel of poverty, with our minds and backs broken by the tech companies. Platform workers are currently burnt out and overexploited.
The ongoing International Labour Conference is therefore a crucial moment for us platform workers. We are powering the world’s most famous technology but our pockets are empty and our mental and physical health is compromised all because we are being exploited by algorithms so that tech companies can continue earning billions in profit. The time has come for this torture to stop.
We are categorical that platform workers in Kenya and the world over deserve a convention that guarantees the following–
- The Convention must ensure that all digital platform workers enjoy the fundamental rights, freedoms and protections at work. Just because we are managed by a digital app does not mean we are not people deserving of rights.
- The Convention must ensure that any platform work facilitated by a digital platform is inherently safe and without risk to health, including preventing risks to the physical or psychosocial health of workers.
- The Convention must recognize all workers as workers and extend labour protections to all workers.
- The Convention must establish provisions addressing the governance of automated systems. An algorithm should not take away people’s rights.
- The Convention must provide safeguards against unjustified suspension or deactivation of digital platform workers’ accounts.
- The Convention must establish measures to ensure fair and transparent remuneration, including payment of the full amount due for all time worked and compensation for work-related expenses.
- The Convention must regulate working time and the right to disconnect. Platform workers are human beings. They need to sleep and rest without being punished.
- The Convention must establish a clear prohibition on digital and social media platforms charging fees to platform workers. Surely, how can your boss ask you to pay them for going to work?
- The Convention must protect workers’ personal data and privacy, including safeguarding against misuse of sensitive data. Workers are not data mines. If you want data to train your algorithms, pay workers extra for that data.
- The Convention must ensure social security protections to all platform workers – compensation for occupational hazards, accommodations for maternity leave and mental wellness, which is a huge crisis amongst platform workers.
- The Convention must ensure access to dispute resolution mechanisms in the jurisdictions where the work is performed. How can we be told to go to Netherlands to solve an issue yet we are told to Westlands to sign up for an app. What do you mean we cannot sue tech platforms in Kenya, yet they are causing havoc here and making billions in profit.
As you can see, these demands are not extraordinary. We are asking for platform workers to be treated with dignity, which is a basic human right.
Address 2: Wycliffe Alutalala, Chairperson of Africa Tech Workers Movement (ATWM)
Africa Tech Workers Movement (ATWM) is an umbrella organisation of AI data labelers, content moderators, digital Bodas, Blessed Ladies and E hailers umbrella transport Association (for app-based and platform-based drivers and riders for passengers and deliveries).
We call on the Kenyan delegation at the ILC, made up of so many Kenyan government officials, to champion the rights of the ‘invisible workforce’ of tech and AI. From the content moderators protecting the internet to the drivers and caregivers navigating our cities, platform workers face unique precarity. We are at a crossroads: we can either allow technology to erode labor standards or use international policy to reinforce them. We urge governments at the ILC to adopt a framework that mandates social protections and mental health support for those performing the digital world’s most essential, and often most taxing, labor.
Address 3: Geoffrey Michael Asia – General Secretary at the Data Labelers Association
Data Labelers Association (DLA) is an association that advocates for fair treatment, better conditions and recognition for data labelers worldwide while pushing for workers to be at the centre of policy and regulatory formulation.
The Data Labelers Association calls on governments, institutions, and industry leaders to confront the silent crisis of exploitation of platform workers. Decent work must not exclude the very workers who make AI possible. Without fair wages, protections, and ethical safeguards, the digital economy is being built on human sacrifice, and that is a future none of us can afford.
Address 4: Jemimah Nyakongo, Interim Coordinator at HomeNet International
HomeNet International is a global network representing over 1.5 Million Homebased workers across 30 countries and is dedicated to amplifying their visibility, securing their recognition as workers and leveraging their united voice to influence governments and employers around the world.
On behalf of Home-based platform workers we see this as a historic opportunity to close regulatory gaps and prevent the expansion of informality. We need a convention that protects all platform workers, including workers in informal employment, own-account workers and home-based workers who are economically dependent on platforms. Workers in the platform economy must have the same rights, protections and voice as all other workers, regardless of employment status or where they work. This convention must not defer protections to national legislation that has historically excluded platform workers and informal economy workers. In addition, workers must be consulted on governance decisions affecting their livelihoods and must have the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Address 5: Nyambura Kogi, Chairperson Women Commercial Drivers of Kenya (WCDA-K)
Women Commercial Drivers of Kenya (WCDA-K) is a worker led society dedicated to advancing the rights, opportunities and visibility of women in the transport sector.
“As the Women Commercial Drivers Association of Kenya (WCDA-K), the International Labour Conference presents a historic opportunity for women platform and commercial drivers to have their realities recognised within international labour standards. Women drivers continue to navigate unsafe working conditions, income instability, gender-based violence and harassment, unpaid care responsibilities, and the high cost of accessing and maintaining the tools required for work. We hope to see stronger protections for platform workers, recognition of the unique challenges faced by women in transport and digital labour, safeguards against discrimination and algorithmic bias, fair and transparent earnings systems, and meaningful worker representation in decision-making processes. We also seek commitments that acknowledge care responsibilities, support workplace safety, and create pathways for women to participate, lead, and thrive in the transport sector. For us, the ILC should ensure that women commercial drivers are visible, heard, protected, and able to earn a dignified livelihood from their work.”
Concluding Address: Frida Mwangi, National Chairperson of Kenya Union of Gig Workers (KUGWO)
Kenya Union of Gig Workers (KUGWO) is a registered trade union under the Labour Relations Act of Kenya which organizes gig workers, fosters strong representation and advocates for policies and regulations that protect their lives and livelihood to ensure gig workers are heard, valued and protected through collective bargaining.
Finally ladies and gentlemen, we urge members of the public to support us in fighting for a better future for us, our sisters and brothers, our children and society as a whole. We have a public petition that we ask all of you to sign. The petition demands that the Government of Kenya stands with platform workers. We are asking for accountability – the people we elect should protect our interests – they should not betray us and they should not side with the tech platforms.
Thank you for giving us an audience.
Ends
For enquiries:
Patrick Muchiri
+254 725 064 149
muchiri@oversightlab.africa