Includes a draft of an authoritative Text for consideration of the Conference.

Examines how the ILO's capacity could be strengthened to fulfil its mandate in the context of globalization. Reflects on how changes in governance structures could help the Organization over the medium term to align more closely the needs of constituents; assessments of the best ways to meet those needs; the development of effective services by the Office; and the scope for mobilizing technical and other resources.

Platform work – the matching of the supply of and demand for paid labour through an online platform – often depends on workers who operate in a “grey area” between the archetype of an employee and a self-employed worker. This important book explores the utility of the International Labour Organization’s existing standards in governing this phenomenon. It indicates that despite their relevance, many standards have little or no impact. The standards apply to the issue but they fail to connect with it. The author shows how three ILO conventions – the Home Work Convention, 1996 (No. 177), the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), and the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) – can be revitalised to have an impact on the platform work debate. In the course of the analysis he responds in depth to such questions as the following: What are digital labour platforms? What does decent work mean? Did the ILO centenary fundamentally change anything? What is the link between private employment services and platform work? How do crowdworkers relate to homeworkers and teleworkers? Are platform workers engaged in domestic work? What form could a future ILO standard on platform work take? Given that the ILO plans to start discussions on a potential future standard for platform work in 2022, this book will prove very useful in highlighting the issues and standards that such discussions should consider. Research has shown that the techniques and tools of the platform economy have spread far beyond gig work, resulting in widespread “gigification” and restructuring of workplace behaviours and relationships, jobs, and communities across the world. For this and other reasons, including the book’s detailed analysis of issues not addressed elsewhere, labour lawyers, in-house counsel, researchers, and policymakers will gain valuable insight into what decent work in the platform economy would require, thus greatly broadening the discussion on this difficult-to-regulate phenomenon.

Three major fields of international law – trade, the environment, and human rights – have become inextricably intertwined in today’s world. A practitioner, policymaker, businessperson, or academic involved in any one of these fields must now be conversant with the other two. This groundbreaking book considers the crucial elements of this complex engagement, with eleven authoritative discussions by some of the most important and widely renowned professors of labor, commercial, and international law and experts from the International Labour Organization and the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law. Focusing primarily on the “social pillar” of sustainability, the authors cover such critical issues as the following: – the “creeping de-globalization” manifested by Brexit and US protectionist policies; – new and renegotiated multilateral “mega” treaties; – prospects for effectively codifying social responsibilities of multinational corporations; – nexus of economic comparative advantage and excessive exploitation of natural resources; – weak (or non-existent) enforcement of labor clauses in trade agreements; – assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance; and – stabilization clauses in state–investor agreements. An analysis of MERCOSUR serves as a revealing insight into the differences between trade agreements concluded among developing countries and those concluded among developed countries. A much-needed probing of the future of global trade in the light of a resurgence of economic nationalisms, this book takes a giant step towards a new consensus and cohesion phase in the international community where development policies, international business transactions, and social and environmental sustainability coexist harmoniously. It will be welcomed by practitioners, academics, and researchers in trade law, environmental law, and labor law, as well as by policymakers and businesspersons concerned with how these legal fields interact with economic justice.