Platform work and labour reform: a preview of the future of work in Argentina

The debate surrounding Argentina’s labour reform brings a fundamental question to the forefront: what kind of work is society willing to legitimise in the digital economy? While current discussions focus on platform labour —delivery, ride-hailing, and on-demand services— the implications go far beyond this sector. Platforms have become a testing ground for new forms of work organisation that are increasingly spreading across digitally mediated jobs.

Against this backdrop, the second Fairwork Argentina Report, produced by a collaboration between Oxford Internet Institute and Centro de Investigaciones en Administración Pública, assesses working conditions in digital labour platforms using international standards of decent work. The report will be released in conjunction with those of other Fairwork member countries in the Latin American region, under the framework of a project funded by Internet Society Foundation (ISOC).

The findings show that while some platforms show isolated improvements —particularly regarding contracts or communication channels— structural problems persist. Workers face unstable and often insufficient earnings, limited protection against work-related risks, opaque algorithmic decision-making, sudden suspensions without meaningful appeal mechanisms, and a lack of collective representation.

These findings are highly relevant to the current labour reform proposal. The bill promoted by the government seeks to formalise the figure of the “independent platform worker”, reinforcing a model of flexibility grounded in formal autonomy. Yet empirical evidence shows that this autonomy is frequently constrained by rankings, performance metrics, economic incentives, and digital reputation systems. Freedom of connection may exist on paper, but in practice it often translates into extended availability and the systematic transfer of risks onto workers.

This is not merely a legal debate—it is a political and social one. In an economy characterised by declining real wages and rising multiple job-holding, legitimising work arrangements without basic protections risks normalising labour insecurity. More importantly, what is validated today for physical platforms anticipates dynamics already present in cloudwork and remote digital labour, where automated decisions, opaque evaluations, and abrupt deactivations are increasingly common.

For this reason, framing the public debate solely around labour flexibility is deeply insufficient. The real challenge lies in designing regulatory frameworks that acknowledge new forms of work organisation without sacrificing fundamental rights. Platform labour is not an exception—it is a mirror reflecting the future of work that is already unfolding.