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Equidem raises serious concerns over Meta’s evasion of corporate accountability in Kenya Over 1,100 workers in Nairobi have been laid off following Meta’s decision to cut ties with its contractor, Sama, raising serious concerns about corporate accountability in global AI supply chains. These layoffs come at a critical moment, after Kenyan courts ruled that cases brought by content moderators against Meta could proceed to trial — a landmark step toward justice. Instead of engaging with these findings, Meta has exited, leaving workers to bear the cost. We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly: when workers in the Global South organise against Global North–based multinationals, companies restructure, exit, or shift jurisdictions to avoid accountability. The speed and scale of Meta’s response, combined with the growing structural power of AI companies, makes this moment particularly significant. Equidem calls on: 🔴 Meta and Sama to ensure that all redundancies are carried out in full compliance with Kenyan labour law, including proper notice, consultation, and adequate severance. Both companies must also take responsibility for the working conditions and harms experienced by content moderators, and commit to supply chain arrangements that do not systematically transfer risk onto workers. 🔴 The Government of Kenya to urgently investigate potential violations and to uphold its duty to protect workers whose labour underpins the country’s role in the global technology economy. 🔴 The international community to stand with these workers and their advocates who have fought alongside them against immense odds at this critical moment, and to move toward binding frameworks that ensure corporate accountability for lead firms across global supply chains. The workers who brought these cases have shown extraordinary courage. Our solidarity is with them. Read full statement : equidem.org/mass-layoffs-i…

In a recent interview with SRF - Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, Deepika Thapaliya from Equidem discusses the impact of the Middle East conflict on migrant workers in the region. She underscores a critical point: the crisis has, in significant ways, intensified and made more visible pre-existing structural inequalities embedded within labour migration systems in the Gulf — including restrictive frameworks such as the kafala system, poor implementation of labour rights, and the absence of effective trade union protections for migrant workers. 🎧 Listen to the podcast: #played" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">srf.ch/audio/echo-der… Equidem has also issued a statement on protecting migrant workers in the context of this conflict, based on rapid investigation findings from conversations with 44 migrant workers across six Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The statement sets out urgent, coordinated actions required from employers, governments, and embassies to safeguard workers during the crisis, alongside longer-term reforms needed to address root causes and prevent the recurrence of such harms. 🔗 Read the statement: equidem.org/reports/protec… #MigrantWorkers #MiddleEast #LabourRights #HumanRights

In a new op-ed, Eiffel Abedin from Equidem writes for Migration Concern on the realities faced by South Asian migrant workers in the Gulf, working as delivery riders. Drawing on our report, 'Free to Be Exploited', he highlights how these workers are often forced to take on debt just to access jobs in the Gulf — only to then face wage theft, punishing delivery targets, and conditions that, in many cases, mirror indicators of forced labour. As we approach the International Labour Conference, it is critical that the voices and experiences of migrant platform workers are heard and that they shape the protections and agreements being developed. 🔗 Read the article: migrationconcern.com/opinion/5731/ 🔗 Read our report Free to Be Exploited: equidem.org/reports/free-t…

Migrant workers make up the majority of the population across Gulf states, yet their lives and deaths in the current regional war remain largely undocumented. Equidem is proud to stand alongside the Coalition on Labor Justice for Migrants in the Gulf, which has launched a critical public record: a centralized, verified database documenting migrant workers killed since the escalation of conflict in late February 2026. This record is not just a list. It is an act of dignity — honouring workers whose lives too often go unacknowledged by governments, employers, and the media. We know the harm extends far beyond death: forced displacement, injuries, unpaid wages, severed remittances, and profound psychological trauma for workers and their families. If you would like to contribute to this record, please reach out. 🔗 laborjusticegulfmigrants.org/documenting-mw…

⭕  Equidem launches a new investigative report: 'Free to be Exploited' One of the report’s key findings is the widespread use of third-party logistics firms (3PLs) in the Gulf’s delivery sector. Instead of hiring riders directly, major food delivery platforms rely on these intermediary companies to recruit and employ workers. On paper, this means the platform is not the rider’s employer. In practice, however, the platform’s app controls almost every aspect of the job, assigning deliveries, tracking location, setting performance targets, and determining pay. This creates an accountability gap: 📱 Platforms control the work 📄 3PLs carry the legal responsibility 🚴 Riders are left with little protection when problems arise When workers raise concerns, about sick leave, wages, safety, or unfair penalties, they are often sent back and forth between the platform and the 3PL, with each pointing to the other. Read the report: equidem.org/reports/free-t…

🚨 JUST LAUNCHED Today, Equidem launches a new investigative report: Free to be Exploited. The report presents findings from a year-long investigation into the labour conditions facing migrant delivery riders across the Gulf — workers who power platforms such as Deliveroo, Talabat, HungerStation, and Careem, yet remain largely invisible to those placing orders. 📊 Key findings include: • 99% of riders were hired through third-party logistics firms (3PLs), allowing platform companies to avoid direct legal responsibility • 70% of workers paid recruitment fees despite legal prohibitions • More than half went into debt to secure these jobs • Nearly half reported passport confiscation, restricting their ability to leave or return home • 42% experienced conditions consistent with indicators of forced labour • 32% reported working seven days a week with no rest day 📄 Read the full report:equidem.org/reports/free-t… 🎥 LAUNCH WEBINAR HAPPENING NOW: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

🚨 New Statement Alert As the crisis in the Middle East escalates, Equidem is issuing a statement based on rapid investigation findings from conversations with 44 migrant workers across six Gulf countries. The statement: ⚠️ Documents the immediate impacts on migrant workers’ safety, livelihoods, and well-being ⚠️ Highlights long-standing structural failures in labour governance systems that have intensified the impacts of the current crisis on migrant workers 🚨 Sets out immediate demands for employers, governments, and embassies to ensure the safety of migrant workers 🚨 Outlines longer-term reforms needed to address root causes and prevent recurring harm With immediate protection and meaningful structural reform, a different future is possible for migrant workers in the Gulf — one in which they are not treated as expendable in times of crisis, but recognised as essential and fully entitled to safety, dignity, and rights. 👉 Read the full statement now : equidem.org/reports/protec…

Equidem is launching its new report, "Free To Be Exploited: The Abuse of Platform-Based Food Delivery Riders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates." Drawing on extensive interviews with migrant riders working for major delivery platforms, the report examines how outsourcing to third-party logistics companies, combined with restrictive migration systems, creates conditions in which workers face serious labour and human rights abuses. The research documents patterns of exploitation, including debt-driven recruitment, wage theft, and dangerous working conditions, as well as the significant barriers that prevent workers from raising complaints or accessing justice. These findings raise urgent questions about accountability in the global platform economy and how meaningful oversight can be enforced in this rapidly expanding sector. To mark the report’s release, Equidem will host a webinar on 13 April 2026. This online presentation will include a panel discussion and explore the report’s key findings and their broader implications. The panel will feature: - Ruwan Subasinghe, Legal Director at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) -Lena Simet, Ph.D. Simet, Senior Researcher and Advocate on Poverty and Inequality at Human Rights Watch (HRW) -Raul Dumont, Platform Delivery Rider and Organiser -Dr Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee, Research, Policy and Innovation at Equidem - Jason Nemerovski, Resaercher, Equidem Register today to join the conversation. us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

🚨 New Report Launch + Webinar As war and geopolitical tensions continue to unfold across the Middle East, migrant workers are once again on the frontlines of risk. As widely reported in global media, delivery riders are navigating dangerous conditions, rising insecurity, and, in some cases, even death. But the factors that have created this precarity run much deeper. They are rooted in structural systems that have long made, and continue to make, migrant platform workers expendable. 📢 Equidem’s new report, Free To Be Exploited: The Abuse of Platform-Based Delivery Riders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, examines: • The lived realities of delivery riders on the ground • The gaps in protection, regulation, and accountability • What must urgently change to ensure dignity, safety, and justice for workers 🗓 Join the report launch webinar 📅 13 April 2026 ⏰ 14:00 GMT Hear directly from a delivery rider, alongside researchers and trade union leaders working to drive meaningful change. 🔗 Register now: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist… #LabourRights #PlatformEconomy #MigrantWorkers #HumanRights #DecentWork

CDTD joined Equidem and key partners in Nairobi for a landmark workshop on Advancing Justice & Dignity in the Care Economy. The session brought together stakeholders to tackle the real challenges faced by East African migrant care and domestic workers, from recruitment and transit to employment and reintegration. Together, they co-created a strategic roadmap to strengthen protections, close rights gaps, and build a movement that ensures safety, justice, and dignity for every care worker. @EquidemOrg #CareWorkersRights #MigrantJustice #DomesticWorkers #SafeMigration

Equidem is organising a co-creation workshop: Advancing Justice and Dignity in the Care Economy On 26 February 2026 in Nairobi, worker and survivor leaders, advocates, policymakers, funders, and researchers will come together to shape solutions for decent work in care and domestic work across migration corridors from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In an ageing world increasingly dependent on care labour, African care workers sustain households and economies across borders — yet many still face unsafe recruitment, debt, isolation, and limited access to remedy. Change is urgent. This workshop is different: workers and survivors are not participants being consulted, but partners co-creating recommendations alongside civil society, governments, and funders. We will focus on: • strengthening protection across migration pathways • improving accountability in recruitment and employment systems • centering worker and survivor voice in policy and practice • identifying concrete actions for governments, employers, and civil society Join online and listen in on the conversation: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist… If you are a worker, survivor, or part of civil society, government, business, or research communities and would like to attend, please write to us at info@equidem.org. #CareEconomy #MigrantWorkers #WorkerVoice #SurvivorLeadership #DecentWork #LabourRights #Migration

Recent newspaper coverage noted that nearly one in four Super Bowl advertisements either promoted AI products or used AI-generated content. The speed with which AI is being normalised in public culture contrasts with the limited attention given to the labour conditions that underpin these AI systems. Equidem’s research on AI supply chains, including 'Scroll. Click. Suffer.', points to two recurring gaps in mainstream debates: 🔴 the workers who train, moderate, and label AI systems, often working under poor conditions and bound by non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from speaking about the psychological harms of content moderation and data labelling 🔴 workplace impacts when AI is deployed without safeguards, including surveillance, constraints on organising, and reduced worker autonomy These concerns indicate that technological development and labour regulation cannot be treated as separate domains: the social infrastructure of AI is inseparable from its technical infrastructure. Where labour conditions remain unaddressed, risks do not disappear — they are displaced into hidden workforces, informal arrangements, and weaker regulatory contexts. Further reading: Adweek coverage on AI ads during Superbowl - adweek.com/brand-marketin… Scroll. Click. Suffer. (Equidem) - equidem.org/reports/scroll… AI : Principles to Protect Workers (AFL-CIO) - aflcio.org/reports/worker… #AI #DigitalLabour #HumanRights #ResponsibleAI

This @business investigation on the Bangladesh–Malaysia migration corridor is a useful reminder that many labour risks in supply chains originate upstream: in recruitment systems, licensing regimes, and migration governance,  rather than only at the worksite. Across its research, @EquidemOrg has observed similar dynamics in migration pathways to the Middle East from South Asia and Africa: workers often enter employment already shaped by recruitment fees, debt obligations, and restricted mobility. By the time workplace due diligence begins, vulnerability has effectively been structured into the employment relationship. The implication is methodological as much as ethical. If risk assessment focuses only on factories, farms, or warehouses, it misses where coercion is frequently produced -- in hiring pathways and labour market intermediation. Read the article: bloomberg.com/features/2026-… #LabourMigration #HumanRightsDueDiligence #SupplyChains

🌍 Strengthening Labour Migration Governance in the Nepal–Gulf Corridor Millions of Nepali workers migrate to GCC countries each year, yet gaps in migration governance continue to expose them to exploitation and rights abuses. Earlier this month, Equidem participated in a multi-stakeholder dialogue on strengthening labour migration governance in the Nepal–Gulf corridor, bringing together representatives from government, civil society, trade unions, human rights institutions, and the private sector. 🎤 Rameshwar Nepal (Equidem) presented a context-setting analysis examining: Current labour migration dynamics between Nepal and GCC countries Persistent governance gaps in recruitment, employment contracts, and access to remedy Structural risks faced by migrant workers, including excessive recruitment fees, deception, discrimination, and weak social protection Opportunities to strengthen protections through rights-based, ethical recruitment frameworks aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) 🗣️ Rameshwar also moderated a panel discussion on promoting safe and regular migration pathways, facilitating a rich exchange between government officials, human rights institutions, civil society organisations, and worker representatives. Key themes emerging from the dialogue included: ✔️ Expanding and strengthening bilateral labour agreements (BLAs) ✔️ Addressing the unintended harms of migration bans, particularly for women workers ✔️ Improving regulation of recruitment practices and migration-related costs ✔️ Strengthening access to remedy and social protection across borders ✔️ Building stronger collaboration between states, employers, and worker-led organisations 📄 Watch this space - A policy brief with actionable recommendations will be developed as an outcome of the dialogue. Equidem will continue to work with partners to translate these discussions into concrete policy reforms and accountability mechanisms that improve protections for Nepali migrant workers across the Nepal–Gulf corridor.

📝 New blog from Equidem CEO Mustafa Qadri: To Defend Democracy, Defend Labour In this powerful new piece, Mustafa reflects on two recent Equidem-hosted events, one during the UN General Assembly and the other at the ETUC Platforum, and makes a compelling argument: 🛠️ Reviving democracy requires investing in workers’ rights, rebuilding the institutions that protect them, and resisting the corporate capture of our political and economic systems. He outlines three urgent reasons why: 🔹 Workplaces are democracy’s training ground When workers are empowered to speak up, organise, and bargain collectively, they gain the voice and power needed to participate meaningfully in democratic life. 🔹 Authoritarians fear organised labour Trade unions are often the first targets of authoritarian regimes—because organised workers are one of the few forces capable of holding state and corporate power to account. 🔹 The future is already being built From green energy to AI, our economies are being reshaped now. If labour rights aren’t embedded from the start, we risk entrenching systems of exploitation that will define the next generation’s working lives. 📖 Read the full blog → 🔗 equidem.org/to-defend-demo… #LabourRights #Democracy #HumanRights #JustTransition #FOA #UNGA #ETUC #Equidem

🚨 The future of platform work is being written and we must get it right. @EquidemOrg has joined civil society allies in submitting detailed comments to the ILO on the draft Convention and Recommendation on decent work in the platform economy (Brown Report). We welcome the Committee’s decision to move forward with binding standards but the current draft leaves too many gaps. 📣 We urge the adoption of a robust Convention and Recommendation that: 📌Covers all platform workers, regardless of contractual form, and recognises platforms’ role in organising work; 📌Establishes a legal presumption of employment to combat misclassification; 📌Introduces joint and several liability across intermediaries; 📌Places direct, binding obligations on platforms for transparency, fair remuneration (including waiting time), occupational health and safety, data rights, and grievance systems; 📌Secures freedom of association and collective bargaining, including protection from algorithmic retaliation; 📌Guarantees equal protection for women, migrants, and refugee workers; and 📌Ensures effective dispute resolution and enforcement, including access to courts and remedies, with no forced arbitration. Without these changes, the Convention risks entrenching exploitative business models instead of regulating them. ❗️ The deadline to submit feedback to the ILO on the Brown report is November 14. If you’re a CSO, trade union, or government body, please share your feedback now, the more voices that speak up, the stronger this Convention can become. 🔗 Read our full joint statement: equidem.org/joint-civil-so… #ILO #BrownReport #DecentWork #GigEconomy #PlatformWork #LabourRights #FOA #AI #Equidem #CSO #Union #FairWork

Loved interviewing @EquidemOrg for yesterday's episode of The Standard @theLDNstandard on the dark truth behind Dubai. With thousands of Londoners flocking to the Middle East city each year - what lies beneath the wealth and glamour? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/why…

📢 “If I wear your company’s shirt, follow your algorithm, follow your behaviour metrics, and you pay me — then you are my employer. Don’t call me a freelancer.” In our latest interview, Winston Kelly, a former rider, rider captain, and Chair of the Foodora Works Council, speaks powerfully about the real struggles of delivery riders and platform workers, exposing how algorithmic control dictates every aspect of their work and lives. Equidem stands in solidarity with Winston and the thousands of platform workers demanding fundamental labour rights, social protection, and recognition as worker. Watch the video now 📷

On Decent Work Day : Workers Rally for Injury Compensation Rights in Thailand Today, workers and allies took to the streets in Thailand to demand full and fair compensation from the Worker Injury Compensation Fund. The protest was organized under the leadership of the Thai Labour Solidarity Confederation (TLSC) with the support and participation of members from the Southern Riders Association (a member of the Global Gig Workers Alliance). Their call is clear: when workers get hurt on the job, they must be protected — not left destitute. Across Asia and beyond, gig and platform workers are facing growing risks without any real safety net. Delivery riders and drivers, who often spend 10–12 hours a day on the road, are routinely misclassified as “independent contractors,” excluded from national injury compensation or health insurance schemes. When accidents occur, companies deny responsibility, leaving workers and their families to shoulder medical costs and lost income. In Thailand, riders have long demanded reforms to ensure that the Worker Injury Compensation Fund covers gig workers too — a demand that echoes across the Global South as millions of workers continue to be denied even the most basic labour protections. On this World Day for Decent Work, we stand shoulder to shoulder with all workers fighting for dignity, safety, and justice, from factory floors to city streets. Power and solidarity to TLSC and Southern Riders Association — your fight is our fight. ✊ #DecentWorkDay #Thailand #WorkerRights #GigWorkers #DecentWork #Solidarity #Equidem

Imagine a world without labour rights… No minimum wage. No safety. No voice. No balance. This isn’t just a warning — it’s a call to action. We need a New Social Contract that delivers: ✊ Trade union rights 💼 Good jobs 💰 Decent wages 🛡️ Social protection ⚖️ Equality and inclusion 📅 World Day for Decent Work – 7 October 2025 Decent work is not a privilege — it’s a right. 🔗 ituc-csi.org/world-day-for-… #WDDW25 #DecentWork #WorkersRights #NewSocialContract #ForDemocracy #Solidarity