NEW DELHI: E-commerce major Flipkart, with a 7 out of 10 score, has topped the Fairwork index for gig workers released on Wednesday, while Ola, Uber came last with a zero score.
The Fairwork India Ratings 2021: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy report examines the working conditions of app-based gig workers. The study, which has assessed eleven platforms this year, uses five principles - fair pay, fair representation, fair contracts, fair conditions, fair management - to determine the score of these organisations.
The report also showed that the take-home earnings of gig workers declined in 2021. Interestingly, no platform scored either point on fair representation this year.
BigBasket, Flipkart, and Urban Company committed to ensuring that all gig workers on their platforms will earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in their work-related costs, the report mentioned.
Ola, Uber and Porter are the only three of the total 11 evaluated companies that have scored a zero. This year has been particularly hard for gig workers owing to the pandemic.
While several platforms introduced COVID-19 safety measures, along with improvements to their insurance policies for their platform workers, only Flipkart and Urban Company were awarded the basic and advanced points under the Fair Conditions principle, it said.
"Besides offering COVID-19-specific income protection this year to their platform workers, both platforms have also committed to compensating loss of income that would extend to situations beyond COVID-19," he said.
Swiggy and Zomato are also working on a plan of action to improve grievance redressal processes for workers, according to the report.
Earnings decline
Ola, Uber and Porter are the only three of the total 11 evaluated companies that have scored a zero. The report also showed that the take-home earnings of gig workers declined in 2021