Platform workers often have substantial work-related costs to cover, such as transport between jobs, supplies, or fuel, insurance, and maintenance on a vehicle.^[1] Workers’ costs sometimes mean their take-home earnings may fall below the local minimum wage.^[2] Workers also absorb the costs of extra time commitment, when they spend time waiting or travelling between jobs, or other unpaid activities necessary for their work, which are also considered active hours.^[3] To achieve this point platforms must demonstrate that work-related costs do not push workers below local minimum wage.

The platform takes appropriate steps to ensure the following:

• Workers earn at least the local minimum wage, or the wage set by collective sectoral agreement (whichever is higher) in the place where they work, in their active hours, after costs.^[4] 

In some places, the minimum wage is not enough to allow workers to afford a basic but decent standard of living. To achieve this point platforms must demonstrate that work-related costs do not push workers below local living wage. 

The platform takes appropriate steps to ensure the following: 

• Workers earn at least a local living wage, or the wage set by collective sectoral agreement (whichever is higher) in the place where they work, in their active hours, after costs.^[5],[6]

Platform workers may encounter a number of risks in the course of their work, including accidents and injuries, harmful materials, and crime and violence. To achieve this point platforms must show that they are aware of these risks, and take steps to mitigate them. In addition, platforms must show that they seek to improve working conditions even when basic risks are addressed.

Platforms must satisfy the following:

• There are policies or practices in place that protect workers’ safety from task-specific risks.^[7]
• Platforms take adequate, responsible and ethical data protection and management measures, laid out in a documented policy.

Platform workers are vulnerable to the possibility of abruptly losing their income as the result of unexpected or external circumstances, such as sickness or injury. Most countries provide a social safety net to ensure workers don’t experience sudden poverty due to circumstances outside their control. However, platform workers usually don’t qualify for protections such as sick pay, because of their independent contractor status. In recognition of the fact that most workers are dependent on income derived from the labour exchange made via the platform for their livelihood, platforms can achieve this point by ensuring that workers are compensated for loss of income due to inability to work.

Platforms must satisfy BOTH of the following:

• Platforms take meaningful steps to ensure that workers are compensated for income loss due to inability to work commensurate with the worker’s average earnings over the past three months.
• Where workers are unable to work for an extended period due to unexpected circumstances, their standing on the platform is not negatively impacted.

The terms and conditions governing platform work are not always clear and accessible to workers.^[8] To achieve this point the platform must demonstrate that workers are able to understand, agree to, and access the conditions of their work at all times, and that they have legal recourse if the other party breaches those conditions.

The platform must satisfy ALL of the following:

• The party contracting with the worker must be identified in the contract, and subject to the law of the place in which the worker works.
• The contract is communicated in full in clear and comprehensible language that workers could be expected to understand.
• The contract is accessible to workers at all times.
• Every worker is notified of proposed changes in a reasonable timeframe before changes come into effect; and the changes should not reverse existing accrued benefits and reasonable expectations on which workers have relied.

In some cases, especially under ‘independent contractor’ classifications, workers carry a disproportionate amount of risk for engaging in a contract with the service user. They may be liable for any damage arising in the course of their work, and they may be prevented by unfair clauses from seeking legal redress for grievances. To achieve this point, platforms must demonstrate that risks and liability of engaging in the work is shared between parties.

Regardless of how the contractual status of the worker is classified, the platform must satisfy BOTH of the following:

• Takes appropriate steps to ensure that the contract does not include clauses which exclude liability for negligence nor unreasonably exempt the service user and/or the platform from liability for working conditions.
• Takes appropriate steps to ensure that the contract does not include clauses which prevent workers from effectively seeking redress for grievances which arise from the working relationship.

Platform workers can experience arbitrary deactivation; being barred from accessing the platform without explanation, and potentially losing their income. Workers may be subject to other penalties or disciplinary decisions without the ability to contact the service user or the platform to challenge or appeal them if they believe they are unfair. To achieve this point, platforms must demonstrate an avenue for workers to meaningfully appeal disciplinary actions.

Platforms must satisfy ALL of the following:

• There is a channel for workers to communicate with a human representative of the platform. This channel is documented in a contract and available on the platform interface. Platforms should respond to workers within a reasonable timeframe.
• There is a process for workers to meaningfully appeal low ratings, non-payment, payment issues, deactivations, and other penalties and disciplinary actions. This process is documented in a contract and available on the platform interface.^[9]
• In the case of deactivations, the appeals process must be available to workers who no longer have access to the platform.
• Workers are not disadvantaged for voicing concerns or appealing disciplinary actions.

The majority of platforms do not actively discriminate against particular groups of workers. However, they may inadvertently exacerbate already existing inequalities in their design and management. For example, there is a lot of gender segregation between different types of platform work. To achieve this point, platforms must show not only that they have policies against discrimination, but also that they seek to remove barriers for disadvantaged groups, and promote inclusion. 

Platforms must satisfy ALL of the following:

• There is a policy which ensures the platform does not discriminate on grounds such as race, social origin, caste, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, age or any other status.
• Where persons from a disadvantaged group (such as women) are significantly under-represented among a pool of workers, it seeks to identify and remove barriers to access by persons from that group.
• It takes practical measures to promote equality of opportunity for workers from disadvantaged groups, including reasonable accommodation for pregnancy, disability, and religion or belief.
• If algorithms are used to determine access to work or remuneration or the type of work and pay scales available to workers seeking to use the platform, these are transparent and do not result in inequitable outcomes for workers from historically or currently disadvantaged groups. 
• It has mechanisms to reduce the risk of users discriminating against workers from disadvantaged groups in accessing and carrying out work.

Freedom of association is a fundamental right for all workers, and enshrined in the constitution of the International Labour Organisation, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The right for workers to organise, collectively express their wishes – and importantly – be listened to, is an important prerequisite for fair working conditions. However, rates of organisation amongst platform workers remain low. To achieve this point, platforms must ensure that the conditions are in place to encourage the expression of collective worker voice. Whether or not platforms set the terms on which workers are retained by service users, platforms must demonstrate that they have taken appropriate steps to ensure that workers are informed of their rights (and have mechanisms in place to help protect those rights) and that workers are directed to appropriate collective bodies or trade unions.

Platforms must satisfy ALL of the following:

• There is a documented mechanism for the expression of collective worker voice.
• There is a formal policy of willingness to recognise, bargain with, a collective body of workers or trade union, that is clearly communicated to all workers.^[10]
• Freedom of association is not inhibited, and workers are not disadvantaged in any way for communicating their concerns, wishes and demands to the platform.^[11]

While rates of organisation remain low, platform workers’ associations are emerging in many sectors and countries. We are also seeing a growing number of cooperative worker-owned platforms. To realise fair representation, workers must have a say in the conditions of their work.  This could be through a democratically-governed cooperative model, a formally recognised union, or the ability to undertake collective bargaining with the platform.

Platforms must satisfy at least ONE of the following:

1. Workers play a meaningful role in governing it.
2. It publicly and formally recognises an independent collective body of workers, an elected works council, or trade union.
3. It seeks to implement meaningful mechanisms for collective representation or bargaining.

These conditions should apply whether or not platforms set the terms on which workers are retained by service users.