BENGALURU: Gig workers in India still do not have proper working conditions, fair pay and proper representation. According to the Fairwork India Ratings 2022: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy report, Uber, PharmEasy, Ola, Dunzo and Amazon Flex have the worst working conditions as they scored zero across various parameters.
The report says the same three platforms that scored the first point for Fair Pay last year scored a point this year too and 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.
Also, 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, the report added. Fairwork assessed platforms against five principles - Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management and Fair Representation. This year, no platform scored more than seven out of the maximum of 10 points, and none scored all the first points across the five principles.
While Urban Company scored seven points and topped the ranking, it was followed by BigBasket with 6 points and Flipkart (5 points) and Swiggy (5 points). Zomato scored 4 points and Zepto 2 points. The report, which examines the work conditions of platform workers on digital labour platforms in India, evaluates 12 platforms offering location-based services in sectors such as domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery, e-pharmacy and transportation.
“The promise of flexibility of the digital platform economy raises as many questions about livelihoods as it offers opportunities,” said Professors Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, the Principal Investigators of the team.