After nine months of intensive collaborative work among researchers from eight Latin American countries, the Fairwork network in the region is pleased to announce the simultaneous launch of seven reports applying the Fairwork methodology in the Latin American context, along with the publication of the Spanish version of the Fairwork Brazil report, originally released in Portuguese and English in September last year.
Fairwork assesses working conditions on digital labor platforms such as Uber, Bolt, Cabify, PedidosYa, among many others. It is a research–action project that aims to generate information on how technological changes affect labor conditions worldwide, by measuring the principles of fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.
This launch consolidates the application of the Fairwork methodology in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In this new research cycle for 2025, 52 platforms in these countries were evaluated through a review of open sources and 290 interviews with platform workers, complemented by dialogues with company representatives to triangulate information and determine the assigned scores.
The simultaneous research effort reveals very low scores across the vast majority of platforms in the different sectors analyzed (delivery, transport, and domestic work), underscoring a lack of minimum standards for fair work in the region’s platform economy. The reports show that a minority of platforms have successfully committed to improving working conditions. However, even though these platforms have not achieved a perfect score under the methodology, such improvements indicate that platforms in the region can ensure decent and fair working conditions. Beyond the individual efforts of each platform, several countries have begun to regulate this type of work in the region—such as Chile and Uruguay, which have already implemented legislation; Colombia, which has recently approved regulation on platform work; and other bills under discussion or in the process of approval in other countries. This regulatory wave places Latin America as the second most active region globally, after Europe, in regulating this new labor dynamic. At the same time, Fairwork reports cast doubt on the effectiveness of these legislative initiatives in actually improving working conditions in the regulated sectors.
Highlighting historical inequalities and needs in the Latin American region
Moreover, as a central element of the 2025 cycle of Fairwork research in Latin America—and following a regional meeting of Fairwork network researchers held in Paraguay, which marked the beginning of a new phase of collaborative work with the support of the Internet Society Foundation—it was agreed that the new reports would focus on problematizing labor informality and digital sovereignty. In a region characterized by high rates of participation in the informal economy and a strong presence of foreign platforms without jurisdiction in Latin American territory, Fairwork researchers identified the need to highlight these axes across the eight reports and to delve deeper, through interviews, into workers’ perceptions of informality, differences in treatment, and labor conditions between national and foreign platforms, along with other cross-cutting issues addressed in all the reports.
Likewise, as the closing of the regional meeting held in Paraguay, the Asunción Declaration on Platform Work in Latin America was presented. This declaration was conceived to influence the international debate on digital platform work within the framework of the 113th meeting of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which took place in June 2025. Among the topics addressed are occupational safety and health, algorithmic transparency, effective dispute resolution mechanisms, personal data protection, and the promotion of fair competition, all from a perspective grounded in the Latin American context.
The Declaration’s founding signatories included TEDIC, Fairwork, the Platform Observatory of Peru, International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW), Privacy International, Derechos Digitales, and the Observatory of Labour Relations of the Catholic University of Uruguay. Following its launch, the opportunity was opened for individuals and organizations interested in supporting the Declaration to sign the document. In this way, signatories from civil society, trade unions, cooperatives, and worker groups from different parts of the region—such as Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru—expressed their support, demonstrating how an agenda seeking better working conditions in the region is present across diverse parts of Latin America.
Looking ahead
The launch of the Fairwork reports constitutes an important milestone in the process of actions agreed upon following the meeting held in the city of Asunción in April of last year, which marked the starting point of collaborative work in the region among researchers from various countries. Above all, it is important to emphasize that—even considering the differences between platforms and countries—the collective message of the Fairwork reports is that much more must be done for platform work in Latin America to be considered fair.
The network of researchers that makes up the Fairwork research–action project has set itself an ambitious agenda for 2026. This includes new research to improve the collection of statistical data on platform workers; the development of a guide aimed at public policymakers to regulate this ecosystem; a report on users’ perceptions of digital platform services; and a synthesis report of the findings from the eight Fairwork 2025 reports, with a particular emphasis on labor informality and technological sovereignty.
In addition, two courses on the platform economy will be made available, based on the results of the various research projects and aimed at public policymakers, trade unions, and journalists interested in the topic. All of this work is made possible thanks to the support of the Internet Society Foundation.
In this way, the Fairwork network in Latin America aims to continue generating information collaboratively and promoting dialogue with diverse stakeholders connected to platform work, with the goal of advancing toward a fairer platform ecosystem in the region.
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