How One Idea of Freedom Prevents Platform Workers from Accessing Collective Labour Rights (and How Another Addresses It): Exploring the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advisory Opinion OC-27/21 and the Chilean Reform on Platform Work

Abstract This paper explores how platform workers are excluded from accessing key collective labour rights in Latin America and what measures have been taken to formalise the sector. It argues that platforms use a combination of management technologies and a form of freedom based on choice, known as freedom as non-interference, which can be found in their business narrative, and in the construction of the so-called binary divide between employees and employers in several national jurisdictions. This contribution tests these propositions in the context of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advisory Opinion OC-27/21 and the recent Chilean reform on platform work. Lastly, this contribution discusses how an alternative idea of freedom, known as freedom as non-domination, would be a suitable alternative to freedom as non-interference to address platform workers’ exclusion from collective labour rights.