Lena Simet

Senior Advisor @hrw on Economic Justice | PhD @TheNewSchool | Cities & Inequality in Latin America @routledgebooks

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

1/ After nearly 3 years of research, our @hrw report The Gig Trap is finally out. It documents how companies like @Uber @lyft @DoorDash @Instacart @Shipt @Amazon Flex built a business model that undermines labor rights & deepens inequality in the US. A 🧵https://t.co/8ky3XdQktK

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

If a business model works only because it evades workers’ rights, it's an argument for regulation, not against it.

@a_bacci & I wrote about AI, gig work, & why govts negotiating a new @ilo standard need to act before exploitation becomes the blueprint: https://t.co/tPIZfCeLGY

[Human Rights Watch @hrw]

It's estimated that “gig” or “platform” work grew by 90 percent between 2016 and 2020. Yet labor protections for those workers have not kept up.

In a new report, HRW documents the experiences of platform workers across nine countries, and urges governments to adopt strong standards to protect workers ⤵️

[Colmenas A.C. @ColmenasOrg]

Tratado laboral de la OIT debe proteger a todos los trabajadores de plataformas
“Las empresas de plataformas han generado un modelo de negocios que elude las protecciones laborales y traslada los riesgos y costos a los trabajadores” @LenaSimet @hrw
https://t.co/Gmg0RCLObT

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

7/ The @ilo negotiations are a landmark opportunity to set global standards for platform work: fair pay, safe conditions, social security, algorithmic transparency & the right to organize.

The future of work should protect workers’ rights, not undermine them.

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

🚨New @hrw report comes as govts prepare to negotiate 1st global treaty on platform work at @ilo.

Across 9 countries workers describe low + unpredictable pay, opaque algorithms, safety risks & little/no social security. A thread🧵https://t.co/X3QqmDaxC1

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

6/ In India, Ravi broke his arm in a crash while rushing to complete a delivery under tight time pressure. He paid his own medical costs. The platform provided no support. “We don’t get anything from the company.”

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

🚨 Tomorrow @hrw releases a new report on the human impact of unregulated platform work - low pay, unsafe conditions, lack of social security across 9 countries.

It comes ahead of critical @ilo negotiations on the 1st global🌍standard for platform work.

DM for embargoed access.

[Rebecca Riddell @Rebecca_Riddell]

NEW: @Oxfam's annual global inequality report🌏

Billionaire wealth⬆️3x faster in '25 than previous years

This year, we dive deep on the link between economic and political inequality. Billionaires are 4000x more likely to hold office than you or me.
https://t.co/EldjmKwUix

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

In #Hungary, poverty among people aged 65+ has more than doubled since 2018.

A key driver: a pension system that leaves nearly 1 in 4 pensioners with incomes below the poverty threshold.
Check out @hrw's latest report: https://t.co/cgia29lrvw

[Human Rights Watch @hrw]

In Hungary, almost half a million older people receive pensions that leave them living below the poverty line.

In a new report, HRW documents how the Hungarian government is failing to ensure older people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living.

Read more: https://t.co/WuSrn0ibQW

[Sarah Saadoun @sarah_saadoun]

Regular people are paying higher taxes for worsening public services, while huge companies & the ultra-rich pay little under a tax system designed 100 years ago. My op-ed on why a new UN tax treaty is a historic chance to enable governments to fund human rights👇

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

New year, new book!📚

@MatthewGreensl2's "Beyond the World Bank" is a powerful critique of the reliance on poverty targeting and makes a strong case for universal rights-aligned social security, drawing on experiences from Chile to Kenya, Nepal & more: https://t.co/XzLUBODA49

[Gabriel Zucman @gabriel_zucman]

You cannot make sense of Nicolás Maduro’s removal without grasping the enormous financial interests involved with regime change in Caracas — and the long history of staggering cross-border wealth extraction from Venezuela to the US🧵

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

Worried about social security "fraud"? Research by @IEJ_SA in South Africa shows we need to look carefully at where the real problem lies. It's rarely beneficiaries who commit fraud, yet they bear the brunt of govt crackdowns.

👉https://t.co/jy8Wyp4Yo0

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

Some truly good news for kids in 2025: China, Fiji, Japan, Morocco, Türkiye, and Tunisia expanded social security for children — and the UK will finally scrap the “2-child limit,” projected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty by 2030.

[Jo Becker @jobeckerhrw]

At the end of a rough year, @hrw takes stock of good news for kids from 2025. Countries banned child marriage, prohibited corporal punishment, expanded free education and protections in armed conflict, showing that progress is possible.
https://t.co/vDfOAhFsB5

[Lena Simet @LenaSimet]

Is universal social security really affordable in low &middle income countries?

Join us Thu Dec 4 @ 11:30am GMT for “Beyond the Unaffordability Myth” a https://t.co/XT9jfTTACU webinar co-organized by @hrw, launching a new @DevPathways & @Act_Svk.

https://t.co/EUO2w7FScZ