Bigbasket, Flipkart and Urban company got high ratings in four out of five criteria that contribute to a conducive work environment for gig workers as per a Fairwork report
Bengaluru: Bigbasket, Flipkart and Urban Company meet most of the key criteria that comprise fair working conditions for gig workers, according to a report by Fairwork India Team. The three companies were rated high on four out of five criteria — Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management and Fair Representation laid down in the report that make up for conducive work environment for gig workers.
The criterea that the companies got high ratings on included: Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts and Fair Management. These findings were presented in the report Fairwork India Ratings 2022: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy report.
The report examines the work conditions of gig workers on digital labour platforms in India. It evaluates 12 platforms offering location-based services in sectors such as domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery, e-pharmacy, and transportation in India. The platforms assessed include Amazon Flex, bigbasket, Dunzo, Flipkart, Ola, PharmEasy, Porter, Swiggy, Uber, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato. Every platform received a score out of 10 for each of the five criteria mentioned above.
The Fairwork India Team, led by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), in association with Oxford University, presented the report.
The ratings are collated through a combination of desk research and worker interviews conducted in Bangalore, Delhi, and Kochi, and wherever possible, from evidence provided by the platforms. This year, no platform scored more than seven out of the maximum of ten points, and none scored all the first points across the five principles. Key findings by principle are below:
This year bigbasket, Flipkart, and Urban Company implemented and operationalised policies to ensure that all workers on these platforms earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs.
These companies have also simplified their insurance claims processes and for having operational emergency helplines on the platform interface. Zomato is the other company to do the same. Furthermore, out of the platforms rated, only bigbasket, Swiggy, and Urban Company implement a loss of pay policy that provides workers with a financial safety net during medical illnesses.
Seven out of twelve platforms were rated high for having Fair Contracts. bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Porter, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato were awarded points for ensuring accessibility of their contracts and implementing a notice period before changes are made. Additionally, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato, have modified their contracts to reduce the asymmetry in liabilities and have added a clause for dispute resolution between workers and platforms.
bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato have a grievance redressal process with the option to connect with a human representative of the platform, which is a fair management practice. Zomato instituted regular, external audits to check for biases in its work allocation systems, in addition to adopting policies against the discrimination of its platform workers.
Fairwork works towards highlighting the best and worst practices in the platform economy. It developed its five principles of work through a literature review of published research on job quality, stakeholder meetings at UNCTAD and the ILO in Geneva and in-country meetings with local stakeholders. By evaluating platforms against measures of fairness, Fairwork wants to show what the platform economy is and also what it can be.
The 2022 report is structured around the theme of flexibility. “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 Professors Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, the Principal Investigators of the team, along with researchers Mounika Neerukonda, Amruta Mahuli, Bilahari M, Damni Kain and Pradyumna Taduri in India.
To access the full report, click here.
