Equidem

No climate justice without labour justice.

A green transition built on exploitation is neither just nor sustainable.

Read Equidem’s Climate Week statement 👉 equidem.org/climate-week...

1000s of Nepali workers are being sent abroad on visit visas, only to end up in undocumented, unsafe, & exploitative jobs. In his latest piece, Rameshwar Nepal of Equidem exposes how corruption& collusion fuel this system and why urgent reforms are needed.
english.onlinekhabar.com/visit-visas-...

Read Equidem’s latest blog, released in the context of the UN’s June 2025 call urging states to guarantee decent work and labour protections for migrant domestic workers.
equidem.org/a-house-of-l...

What happens when AI workers are exposed to trauma—and silenced by NDAs?

In the Jacobin, Equidem’s Shikha & Nandita reveal how tech firms are fueling a public health crisis by hiding the harm faced by content moderators & data labelers.

jacobin.com/2025/06/ai-m...

AI depends on invisible and exploited labour.

In a new blog for the Institute for Human Rights and Business, Eiffel Abedin from Equidem, expose the harsh, often traumatic conditions faced by content moderators and data labelers across the Global South.

📖 www.ihrb.org/latest/conte...

How NDAs Became the AI Industry’s Tool for Surveillance and Silence | TechPolicy.Press Nandita Shivakuma and Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee discuss the hidden labor supporting AI development and how NDAs silence these workers.

In Tech Policy Press, Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee and Nandita Shivakumar, drawing on Equidem's latest report, unpack how Big Tech weaponizes NDAs to suppress workers trauma, block labour organizing & dodge corporate accountability.

📰 Read: techpolicy.press/how-ndas-bec...

It’s time to recognise domestic work as essential work — and ensure these workers receive dignity, fair wages, social protection, and legal rights wherever they are.

On #InternationalDomesticWorkersDay, we honour the 75 million domestic workers who keep families, homes, and communities running — yet remain invisible, undervalued, and unprotected.

Today on #InternationalDomesticWorkersDay, Equidem joins rights groups urging Saudi Arabia to protect over 4M migrant domestic workers — including 1.2M women.

We demand:
⚖️ Equal labour rights
🛑 End to kafala
📜 Ratify ILO Conventions 189 & 190
👁️ Real enforcement & oversight of workers rights

✊🏽 From Nairobi to Manila to the Gulf, gig workers are organizing across borders.
This piece is a launchpad for their collective vision of global justice.
🧠 Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of work, labor rights, and tech accountability.

But workers aren’t staying silent. In Geneva, alongside the official ILC, gig workers and organizers are hosting a counter gathering. Their goal: to challenge corporate narratives, center worker voices, and push for a global framework grounded in rights, dignity, and worker-led solutions.

📍 As the International Labour Conference debates platform work, this piece lays it out clearly: the current system is failing gig workers. And the way AI is being built and deployed is only making things worse—used not to empower workers, but to surveil them, drive down pay, and block organizing.

Gig Workers United: Reimagining Global Justice in the Era of AI | TechPolicy.Press Platform workers from 28 countries meet in Geneva to ensure their voices are heard as the ILO discusses global labor standards for gig work.

🚨 Just published: a powerful piece at @techpolicypress.bsky.social co-authored by our Equidem CEO Mustafa Qadri, alongside fellow organizers Chandan Kumar, Anousha Peters, and Aju John—all on the front lines of the fight for platform worker rights.

www.techpolicy.press/gig-workers-...

📣 The declaration calls for living wages, social security, health and safety protections, and proper employment classification for platform workers. It also demands algorithmic transparency, protection of workers data, the right to organise, and access to remedies for unfair decisions.

🧑🏾‍💻 From content moderators and data labellers to app-based drivers and delivery workers, millions power our digital economy—yet too many face poverty-level wages, algorithmic surveillance, and total lack of protections.

JUST LAUNCHED: Joint Declaration on Decent Work in the Platform Economy
As the International Labour Conference 2025 begins we stand united with global unions, CSOs & grassroots worker organizations in calling for strong international standards to protect platform workers.
equidem.org/joint-declar...

📢 Happening today!

🕐 10 AM EST I 5 PM EAT
📲 Register now: us05web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🎤 Speakers include:
▪️ Two former content moderators
▪️ Ephantus Kanyugi, Data Labelers Association
▪️ Eric Mwezi Manzi, ITUC
▪️ Mylene Cabalona, BIEN Pilipinas
▪️ Mustafa Qadri, Equidem

🎤 Hear directly from data workers
⚖️ See what justice could look like
🗣️ Speakers include Luc Triangle (ITUC), Mustafa_Qadri (Equidem) — more to be announced

#DigitalLabour #HumanRights #Webinar #AI #ILC2025 #PlatformWork #LabourRights

Join us on 28 May for the global launch of this report and a new policy brief — released ahead of the ILC meetings — calling for urgent action from Big Tech, governments, and investors to uphold the rights of platform workers.

The report documents multiple forms of systemic violence embedded deep within the global digital supply chain. If you rely on AI or social media, you need to read this report to know what’s happening behind the screen.

Based on interviews with 113 workers in Colombia, Kenya, Ghana, and Philippines, the report reveals:
➤ PTSD and insomnia from moderating child abuse and violent content
➤ NDAs that silence trauma
➤ Union-busting and blacklisting
These are not isolated incidents and they are far from the only ones.

This Wednesday, we’re launching one of the most important multi-country investigations into the digital labour powering today’s tech.

'Scroll. Click. Suffer' exposes the brutal realities faced by the invisible workforce behind your AI tools and platforms.

Register: us05web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Today, on International Workers’ Day, we pause to honour the strength and courage of workers everywhere.

A better world is not just possible — it’s necessary. And together, we will build it.

🌍 We're proud of Geoffrey and our Kenyan team who stand with survivors and fight for migrant workers' rights every day.

⚖️ But no one should have to rely on individual bravery just to access basic rights and dignity.

✈️ Wherever people migrate for work, their rights must follow.

“We were promised hospital jobs. Instead, we were trafficked, abused, and abandoned.”

That’s what Kenyan nurses in Saudi Arabia told Geoffrey Otieno—our colleague + survivor of modern slavery.

He helped them return home.

👉 Full story: equidem.org/betrayed-abr...

These aren’t just policy points—they are life-or-death protections for migrant workers who fuel Qatar’s economy.

✊ We stand with Martha and all migrant workers. The time for real change is now.

📎 Read more: laborjusticegulfmigrants.org/qatar-upr-ou... /3

📢 The Coalition urges the Government of Qatar to:

✅ Pass laws recognizing migrant workers’ right to freely associate and form unions.
✅ Penalize companies using forced labor.
✅ End employer retaliation, including “absconding” charges against workers who report abuse./2

Martha Waithira, a former domestic worker in #Qatar and an investigator with #Equidem, delivered a powerful speech to the 58th session of the Human Rights Council on the outcomes of Qatar’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on behalf of the Coalition on Labor Justice for Migrants in the Gulf./1

Key Findings:
🔴Women workers face physical,psychological, sexual, and economic abuse—with 0 accountability for perpetrators.
🔴Kafala system still traps workers in abusive jobs, preventing them from leaving.
🔴Migrant women are denied fundamental rights: no freedom of movement, no legal aid,no unions.

📢 Saudi Arabia Chairs the UN Commission on the Status of Women – While Abusing Migrant Women Workers

New Equidem Briefing paper Exposes the Truth.

Read now : equidem.org/reports/shat...