Digitalization of the Workplace, with Focus on Digital Labour Platforms

This regional workers academy aims to strengthen trade union understanding, policies, strategies and actions in promoting workers’ rights, decent and quality jobs, and inclusive growth in digital labour platforms. OBJECTIVES The six-week online course aimed to: • define and understand the realities in digital labour platforms, including the challenges, opportunities, and impact on the labour market, employment, labour relations, and the future of work; • analyse the weaknesses and policy deficits of current regulatory frameworks governing jobs both in locally and globally operating service platforms; • use ILS, ILO tools and other instruments to determine and develop studied policy recommendations and demands towards a coherent regulatory framework for digital labour platforms, which trade unions can bring to the table in tripartite and bipartite discussions and public policy debates at the national, enterprise, and sectoral levels; • share, learn from and replicate successful regional, national and sectoral trade union initiatives and strategies in promoting decent work and inclusive growth in digital labour platforms; • develop priority trade union actions and strategies to deal with the challenges in digital labour platforms, including capacity-development activities and union-to-union networking for the promotion of decent work for workers in digital labour platforms. CONTENT The course covered five (5) learning modules: • Module 1. Realities and challenges in digital labour platforms. • Module 2. International labour standards and regulatory framework for work on digital labour platforms. • Module 3. Trade union initiatives and responses: lessons learned. • Module 4: Bipartite social dialogue, representation, and ways forward. • Module 5: Application of learning. The course consisted of an estimated 40 hours of synchronous and asynchronous online learning, which include 29 tasks such as partiicpation in live teach-ins (webinars), completion of self-guided learning modules, online interaction and collaboration, and submission of assignments, and ‘application of learning plans’, among others.