Labour Standards in the Platform Economy Ecuador 2025

In 2025, Ecuador is experiencing a profound political, economic, and security crisis that has created a highly precarious environment for platform work. Despite an unusual period of economic growth driven by exports, remittances, and increased liquidity, this dynamism has not translated into higher levels of formal employment or improved working conditions, with informality remaining widespread and official data on the platform economy still outdated. In a context marked by escalating criminal violence—now reaching the highest homicide rate in Latin America—platform workers face daily threats to their safety, a lack of social protection, and fragmented governance, reflected in contradictions between Constitutional Court rulings, local enforcement practices, and the uneven implementation of the Personal Data Protection Law. The 2025 Fairwork report further reveals a deterioration in labour standards: most evaluated platforms received low or null scores, with widespread failures to ensure living wages, safe working conditions, fair contracts, due process, and collective representation, signalling an increasing international platform economy even among local platforms and underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive policies that align digitalisation with labour rights and worker protection.