Realising decent work for platform workers: a human rights approach

The growth of platform work poses a serious threat to achieving decent work for all, which labour law has so far struggled to address. This article defends the legitimacy and value of adopting a human rights approach to the regulation of platform work, including by examining platform domestic workers as a valuable ‘hard case’ against which to assess the implications and merits of such an approach. While acknowledging certain ‘perils’ of a human rights approach, we argue that its ‘promises’ are greater, provided human rights are conceived in a way that takes seriously their collective aspects and the positive obligations they generate for states. The article then explores how a human rights approach can be operationalised in key areas of labour law, namely, rights to collective bargaining and protection against dismissal, and demonstrates how human rights can be used to achieve a more inclusive and effective regulation of platform work.