A total of five companies – Amazon Flex, Dunzo, Ola, PharmEasy and Uber – secured zero points in the Fairwork India Ratings 2022, a report released on Tuesday on the conditions of gig workers on digital labour platforms.
The top spot was occupied by Urban Company (7/10) followed by BigBasket (6/10) and Flipkart (5/10). The report considered 12 platforms which offer location–based services in various categories in the country and rated them against five principles.
The report was released by Fairwork India team, led by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), and in association with Oxford University.
The five principles which were assessed were fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation, and each principle was broken down into two points. Often projected as the crucial benefit of gig work, flexibility was chosen as the theme for this year’s report.
“The promise of flexibility of the digital platform economy raises as many questions about livelihoods as it offers opportunities. We hope the Fairwork report provides the basis for an interpretation of flexibility that allows for not merely the adaptability that platforms seek, but also the income and social security that workers lack,” said Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, principal investigators of the team.
The report said that the same three companies, which secured the top spots last year, have retained their rankings.
“There are two highlights to this year’s findings. Firstly, the same three platforms that scored the first point for fair pay last year scored a point this year too. No other platform publicly committed or provided sufficient evidence to ensure that workers earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after work-related costs,” said a press release from Fairwork India.
It further said: “Secondly, while workers have engaged in various forms of collective action to voice their concerns in the platform economy, platforms have been uncompromisingly unwilling to recognise or negotiate with any collective body representing workers”.
Published - December 27, 2022 09:50 pm IST
