The International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers (IAATW) released a report on Thursday, warning that this so-called subscription model is spreading rapidly in the Global South and is not included in any draft labor standards currently being considered by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

This report has come at an important time. The ILO’s International Labor Conference (ILC) is set to begin in Geneva in about 12 weeks, where member states are expected to debate, and perhaps adopt, a new convention on platform work. IAATW argues that the current draft, informed by the ILO’s recently published Blue Report, is already out of date, and does not take into account subscription models and other new structures that platforms are using to circumvent worker protections.

“In this model, the driver pays the company to subscribe to the app for the time he wants to work. This reverses the direction of the payment transaction,” said Sheikh Salauddin, vice president of IAATW South Asia.

Under the traditional platform model, companies take commission from every fare or delivery completed by a worker. The subscription model completely reverses this relationship. Drivers pay a fixed fee to the platform in exchange for access to the app and its customer base for a certain number of hours, days, weeks, or a fixed price of booking. According to Shaikh Salauddin, South Asia region vice president of IAATW, some platforms already offer subscription tiers with limits of six hours, twelve hours, one week, one month or up to Rs 10,000 in bookings.

“This subscription model is spreading rapidly across the region, and some of the larger platform companies have indicated that this could be the future of the sector,” Salauddin said. “This business model is not included in the current draft of the convention to be discussed at ILC 2026.”

This model is currently being trialled in different markets in the Global South, where regulatory oversight of platform companies is weak and where, according to the ILO’s own previous estimates, the majority of platform workers live. ILO data shows that there are approximately 154 million people working in the platform economy worldwide, of whom 62 to 82 percent work in the transport segment.

IAATW has expressed considerable frustration with the ILO process. The international alliance says it submitted detailed comments on subscription models and other emerging business structures before the Blue Report deadline, but they were ignored. They argue that the draft convention was written as if their input was not received.

“Despite providing the ILO with full and comprehensive information, the Office and other parties involved decided to draft a new draft that is already useless to millions of platform workers,” the IAATW said in its release, adding that the result favors the boss.

Omar Parker, Secretary General of NEFSA and IAATW board member representing Sub-Saharan Africa, said workers’ concerns have been consistently ignored. “Throughout this ILO standard-setting process, IAATW and its members have sought to raise our concerns about the ever-changing complexity of such emerging problems and the growing gap in ILO standards. We have been left out and the ILO has dismissed our concerns,” he said.

IAATW was excluded from formal participation in the ILO’s standard-setting process, which is led by member state governments, employer associations and established trade union federations. But the Alliance claims it has achieved a major result: blocking efforts to mandate ILO Recommendation 198 under the new convention, which it argues has accelerated platform-based employment and undermined workers’ rights.

As the Geneva Conference approaches, IAATW is calling on the broader labor movement to regroup behind a strategy led by organizations in the Global South. In a report published in May 2025, the Alliance noted that more than 80 percent of platform sector workers worldwide are from the Global South, and argued that the ILC process should reflect that demographic reality, rather than being guided primarily by unions and labor leadership from rich countries.

“We call on the labor community to come together and advance a more effective strategy, led by organizations and federations that represent the most affected workers in the Global South, while also tracking real change at the ground level on a daily basis,” Salauddin said.