The delegation of Brazilian workers will propose the creation of an international convention to guarantee workers’ rights in applications. The idea will be taken to the annual meeting of the International Labor Organization, which will discuss the employment crisis starting this weekend.
The contract aims to guarantee the rights of employees on digital platforms such as Uber. This will include both those providing services, such as drivers, and the technology workers of these groups.
The project belongs to Antônio Neto, president of the Central dos Unions Brasileiros and chairing the country’s workers’ delegation at this year’s ILO conference in Geneva. He is also president of the São Paulo State Association of Information Technology Professionals. He will take the proposal to the party chief executive Guy Ryder and discuss it with organizations from other countries.
According to him, the transformation of works into “commodities” is no longer acceptable. In Brazil, the union leader estimates there are 1.5 million workers in applications.
Neto warns that this segment has contracts with no paid rest, no social security protection, no income guarantee, and working hours up to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. To him, that’s about 10 cents an hour. “There’s a misconception that they’re entrepreneurs,” he said.
One of the ways Brazilian unions propose is to tailor the new International Convention to what is done for maritime workers. “Without this, we will remain silent in the face of the exploitation of labor, a new slavery,” he warns.
Last year, the ILO issued a warning to governments to strengthen initiatives that could allow these workers access to collective bargaining.
Workers at the service of apps and digital services today are not guaranteed basic rights in the workplace, from social protection to minimum wage, including predictability of working hours.
What surprises the ILO most is that the revenues and profits of these companies have increased fivefold between 2010 and 2019, as the number of workers in this industry is booming. That year, values exceeded US$52 billion. More than half of the workers in this industry were then paid less than two dollars a day.
source: Noticias
