I am pleased to announce the publication of the final report of the International High-Level Expert Committee on Democracy at Work for the Spanish Government, to which I contributed an expert testimony.
About the Report
Established by the Ministry of Labour of the Government of Spain, the Expert Committee on Democracy at Work brought together international experts to examine critical challenges facing workers in the contemporary economy. The Committee’s report represents months of research, deliberation, and expert testimony from leading scholars and practitioners worldwide.
My own testimony, delivered in May 2025, focused on “The Crisis of Informality and the Global Value Chain,” bringing the research on data work and AI labor of my research into this crucial policy conversation.
In my hearing, I presented findings from DiPLab’s extensive research programme on Digital Platform Labor, highlighting a frequently overlooked dimension of algorithmic management: the externalized, largely invisible labor that powers artificial intelligence development.
The complete testimony to the Committee is available below:
The presentation examined data work as an essential but systematically undervalued component of AI production systems. Drawing on DiPLab’s field research across multiple continents—including French- and English-speaking countries in Africa (Madagascar, Kenya, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Egypt), Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America (Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina), and South and Southeast Asia (India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, China)—I documented stark disparities in compensation and working conditions.
As I emphasized, while AI appears to be “produced” in the Global North where major technology companies maintain their headquarters, this masks a complex reality: data production remains concentrated in the Global South, with labor flowing through established patterns that reflect linguistic, colonial, and economic connections.
Report Release
Spanish: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/es/home/
English: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/en/home/
Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/frTjUx2TOb8