BENGALURU: Ola and Porter have scored zero out of 10 points on the Fairwork India Ratings 2023 in terms of fair work for gig workers. This is the third year in a row that Ola has scored zero. Of 12 ecommerce platforms, this year, no platform scored more than six out of the maximum of ten points.
BigBasket topped the fairness table with 6 points, followed by BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zomato, Zepto, Flipkart, Amazon Flex. Both Dunzo and Uber have scored one point each. Last year, Urban Company scored seven points and topped the ranking, followed by BigBasket with 6 points.
Also, this year, the Fairwork India team has included a ride-hailing platform aggregator that owns electric vehicles BluSmart in the ratings. According to the report, BigBasket, Flipkart and Urban Company were the only platforms with a minimum wage policy to ensure that all their workers earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs.
Fairwork assessed platforms against five principles - Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management, and Fair Representation. Despite the rise in platform worker collectivisation, over the past four years, there was insufficient evidence from any platform to show a willingness to recognise a collective body of workers.
The report said, no platform could be awarded a point for Fair Representation this year. “In a year that has seen the formulation of a significant regulation based on inputs from workers, [The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023], we hope that highlighting the experiences of workers will point to the structural changes that platforms, consumers and the State alike will need to undertake if the platform economy is to offer its workers decent work,” said Professors Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, the Principal Investigators of the team.