Digital platforms, decent work and developing countries

With the rise of platform work in developing countries, positioning this trend in the decent work agenda becomes important. This paper explores the conditions likely to be associated with measurable decent platform work. The analysis uses Fairwork as a proxy for decent work and offers indicative findings that having verifiable evidence to score fair and decent work among platform companies is correlated with the level of development, regulatory quality, and having surplus labour. Findings are also suggestive of ethical relativism as the same platform is less likely to have evidence of working conditions in developing vs developed countries. From a policy standpoint, the findings reinforce previous calls for international standards to regulate platform companies, and further makes the case for international organisations to help capacitate local agents to effectively monitor platform work.