A recent report by Fairwork, titled: Fairwork India Ratings 2022, lambasted Amazon Flex, Dunzo, Ola, Uber, and PharmEasy for not providing just a working environment to their gig workers.
The research firm evaluated the gig & platform economy companies on five parameters- Fair Pay, Fair Management, Fair Contract, Fair Conditions, and Fair Representation, and scored them out of ten accordingly.
In a score of 0-10, Amazon Flex, Dunzo, Ola, PharmaEasy, and Uber scored a big fat Zero.
The report evaluated 12 prominent Indian platforms — Amazon Flex, Bigbasket, Dunzo, Flipkart, Ola, PharmEasy, Porter, Swiggy, Uber, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato — operating in Bangalore, Delhi, and Kochi, and having expanded workforce, consumer base, and investments.
Urban Company ranked at the top among the evaluated platforms, scoring 7/10, followed by Bigbasket with 6, Flipkart and Swiggy with 5, Zomato with 4, Zepto with 2, Porter with 1, and the rest of them scoring zero. Last year, it was Flipkart that scored the highest at 7.
Fair Pay:
Performance by Urban Company, Bigbasket, Swiggy, and Zomato showed an uptick against 2021 ratings.
Uber and Ola maintained their position by scoring zero, while Amazon, Dunzo, Flipkart, Porter, and PharmEasy saw a drop in their points.
According to the Fairwork report, Bigbasket, Urban Company, and Flipkart earned a point for Fair Pay consecutively for the second time.
The report classified Fair Pay as workers, devoid of their employment classification, should get a decent income adhering to local standards after considering work-related costs.
“This year, only Bigbasket, Flipkart, and Urban Company were awarded the first point because of the public commitments they have made to paying workers at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs,” Fairwork India said in its fourth annual report.
“Bigbasket and Urban Company have operationalized this by committing to reimburse the difference between worker’s earnings per hour and the hourly local minimum wage after costs. Flipkart and Urban Company have committed to basing their pricing structure for workers on the hourly local minimum wage after costs. Flipkart has also undertaken steps to hold its third-party service providers to the same commitment,” the report added.
The report said that gig economy platforms are reluctant to commit to a minimum wage policy, while workers and worker groups have asked for a stable income. Companies have been “uncompromisingly unwilling to recognize or negotiate” with any group representing workers.
Who Is A Gig Worker?
For the unversed, Gig workers do not fall under the category of employees for the company they work for and therefore do not enjoy monthly fixed salaries and other benefits. They receive compensation on a per-gig basis.
Gig jobs example: A Zomato delivery executive or an Ola driver would be called a gig worker. They perform the tasks assigned by the platform and enjoy commission per task.
Fair Representation:
Notably, not even a single platform earned a single point for the parameter of- fair representation.
Fair Conditions:
The report analyzed the measures companies took to protect their gig workers from any possible risks during the course of work, such as an accident.
Bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato earned a point for their accident insurance policies, efforts to improve the claims process, and the availability of emergency helplines.
Bigbasket, Swiggy, and Urban Company were awarded an extra point for providing monetary support to workers who failed to turn up for gigs due to illness and ensured that their standing on the platform was unaffected when they returned from a leave of absence.
Fair Contract:
Seven of the twelve companies implemented a Fair contract with their workers. They had charted out provisions for accessible, readable, and understandable agreements. It might include the provision of multilingual agreements and the commitment to notify workers of changes in their terms of engagement within a specified time before being enforced.
Of the 12 platforms, six platforms (bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato) added a clause for dispute resolution between workers and them.
Fair Management:
bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato earned a point for incorporating grievance redressal processes with the option to connect with a human representative of the platform.
While Urban Company earned an extra point for instituting “regular external audits to check for biases in its work allocation systems, in addition to adopting policies against the discrimination of its platform workers.”
“The promise of the flexibility of the digital platform economy raises as many questions about livelihoods as it offers opportunities. We hope the Fair Work 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”, the researchers of the report said.