Digital Labour Platforms: A Need for International Regulation?

Web-based, digital labour platforms permit the real-time hiring of labour for a myriad of tasks from IT programming to graphic design to routine clerical tasks.The ease, flexibility and low-cost of outsourcing work to digital labour platforms has resulted in their growth, and this growth is likely to continue in the future.Yet these online activities pose important regulatory challenges that cannot effectively be addressed solely through national responses.Recognizing these difficulties, the ILO's Global Commission on the Future of Work called for an international governance system for digital labour platforms that could set and require platforms, and their clients, to respect certain minimum rights and protections for all workers.This paper will discuss the prospects and challenges inherent in cross-border, web-based, digital labour platforms for workers, operators, and regulators and put forward possibilities for establishing an international regulatory framework for these new forms of work Key words: digital labour platforms, transnational regulation JEL Classification: J08, J53, J81 1 The views expressed are our own and do not necessarily reflect those of the ILO.