Human Rights Watch urges global gig-worker protections, raising stakes for Pizza Hut delivery

Human Rights Watch pushed the International Labour Organization to write its new platform-work treaty so it protects all gig workers, including people classified as independent contractors. For Pizza Hut drivers and managers, that fight matters because delivery is no longer just a restaurant job versus another restaurant job. It is a labor market shaped by app-based couriers, franchise drivers, and third-party services like DoorDash, all competing for the same workers and the same customer expectations around speed, tips, and convenience.

The group said gig workers around the world face long hours, unpredictable and declining pay, and serious safety risks. The ILO has already put decent work in the platform economy on the agenda of its 113th and 114th International Labour Conferences, with talks in Geneva in June 2025 and again in June 2026. Its draft text defines a digital platform worker as someone who works through a digital labor platform, regardless of employment status, which is the kind of language that could narrow the gap between how delivery work is organized and what protections workers actually receive.

That is not an abstract policy debate for Pizza Hut. In 2024, a former Pizza Hut franchisee with Texas locations agreed to settle a class-action wage case for $4.75 million after delivery drivers alleged they were underpaid once gas, vehicle upkeep and other unreimbursed costs were taken into account. The company has also leaned on third-party delivery companies such as DoorDash when it could not find enough drivers, a reminder that labor shortages and pay formulas can ripple straight into store operations and same-store sales. For workers, global rules on platform work could eventually influence local arguments over mileage reimbursement, pay transparency, tip treatment and whether delivery is structured as a driving job or a contractor gig.

The broader workforce behind those arguments is enormous. A World Bank report from 2023 estimated there were 154 million to 435 million online gig workers globally and said online gig work could make up as much as 12% of the global labor market. It also warned that many workers in low-income countries lack access to social insurance and benefits. Human Rights Watch said on June 13, 2025, that a majority of ILO member states and workers’ delegates backed moving toward binding global standards on decent work in the platform economy, and it has since pressed for fair wages, social security and protection from exploitative management.

For Pizza Hut, the significance is practical: if global standards push platform companies to absorb more labor costs, delivery apps may lose some of the price advantage they hold over restaurant-based jobs. If the standards go the other way, and leave classification loopholes intact, chains that depend on drivers will keep fighting the same recruiting squeeze, with each slow night on the road becoming part of a bigger contest over who gets to define delivery work.