Platform work is increasingly promoted as a strategy for employment generation in the Philippines. The Philippine Labor Force Survey of 2021 reported that around 1.7 million gig workers are engaged by online platforms or mobile applications, with many depending on it as their primary livelihood. Yet the rapid expansion of platform labor as a livelihood opportunity is unfolding alongside intensifying climate disruption and technological transformation. Extreme heat, flooding, supertyphoons, unstable power infrastructure, and digital dependency are creating new forms of vulnerability for platform workers—many of whom already operate under precarious and weakly protected labor conditions. Due to its archipelagic topography and location, the Philippines is uniquely vulnerable to climate change, ranking high among countries most affected by extreme weather events.
This Policy Report underscores how vulnerabilities in the platformization of labor are magnified and compounded by climate risks, making the call for specific forms of social protection and skills development strategy more urgent than ever. This report presents specific policy recommendations for social protection and proposes adaptability and diversification skills to help Philippine platform workers cope with extreme weather and technological change.
It draws from:
- In-depth, in-person interviews with ride-hailing, delivery, care, and remote workers conducted across three major island groups in the Philippines (n=71)
- Key informant interviews with pioneers and industry leaders across varied service segments of the platform economy (n=31)
- Participant observation at industry fairs and conferences
- Dialogues with worker associations, representatives from key government agencies, and Advisory Group members
- Analysis of 64 international and local policy documents that attend to platform work, climate change, and skills development
About the Project
Resilient Platform Work Philippines is led by the De La Salle University-Social Development Research Center, in partnership with the Manila Observatory. This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, through the FutureWORKS Asia research network, hosted by LIRNEasia.
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