The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called for a legally binding international convention to protect workers in the rapidly expanding digital economy, saying such a framework is necessary to guarantee living wages, social protection, and collective bargaining rights.
The call was made on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, during a joint news conference held on the sidelines of the 114th International Labour Conference (ILC). Speaking on behalf of organised labour, NLC President Joe Ajaero said workers in the platform economy face increasing risks of exploitation and require stronger global safeguards to protect their rights.
Ajaero said the rapid growth of digital and platform-based work has created new challenges for employees, including algorithmic surveillance, arbitrary deactivation from platforms, and the denial of fundamental labour rights.
According to him, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) must accelerate efforts to establish enforceable global standards that would protect workers in the digital workplace.
“If the work of the ILO is to mean anything for Nigerian workers and the global working class, it must hasten work on a binding standard for the platform economy,” Ajaero said.
“We do not need aspirational declarations that leave platform workers exposed to algorithmic surveillance, arbitrary deactivation and the denial of basic labour rights. We need a convention that guarantees living wages, collective bargaining, social protection and the right to be remembered as human beings, not data points,” he added.
The NLC President stressed that social dialogue must remain at the centre of workplace transformation, noting that technological advancement should improve workers’ welfare rather than deepen existing inequalities.
He also advocated a transformative approach to gender issues, arguing that digital platforms often reinforce structural inequalities that disproportionately affect vulnerable categories of workers.
Ajaero further maintained that international labour standards would have limited impact without effective enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance by member states.
He urged the ILO to strengthen its supervisory framework to hold governments accountable for violations of existing and future labour conventions.
Speaking further, Ajaero alleged that Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining had been violated in Nigeria without adequate sanctions against offenders.
“We have seen in Nigeria how parties flout Convention No. 98 and others with impunity, occupying union secretariats and crushing collective bargaining while hiding behind sovereignty,” he said.
He reaffirmed organised labour’s commitment to advocating stronger protections for workers and promoting global labour standards that advance fairness, dignity, and decent work.
