Fairwork, which evaluates the working condition of gig workers, assessed digital platforms on five principles — Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management, and Fair Representation — with a basic point and an advanced point for each principle. Uber and Ola scored zero points on a scale of 10 for the second year in a row.
Among the top performers this year were Urban Company, which topped the ratings chart with seven points, Tata Group-owned BigBasket with six points, e-commerce marketplace Flipkart and food-delivery platform Swiggy with five points each.
Swiggy’s publicly listed rival Zomato scored four points, while quick commerce platform Zepto and delivery logistics firm Porter received two and one points, respectively.
On the Fair Pay principle, the report noted: “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”.
“We were unable to evidence any platform to meet the threshold of the second point, which requires the platform to commit or provide sufficient evidence that workers earn at least the local living wage after work-related costs,” it added.
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None of the 12 digital platforms surveyed for this report scored a single point on the Fair Representation parameter.
“It is disconcerting that despite the rise in platform worker collectivisation across the country, like last year, there was insufficient evidence from any platform to show willingness to recognise a collective body of workers. Consequently, we were unable to evidence any platform to meet the thresholds of this principle,” the report noted.
For the Fair Conditions principle, the survey awarded the basic point to five platforms — BigBasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company and Zomato — for simplifying their insurance claims process and having operational emergency helplines on the platform interface.
However, it only awarded the advanced point to BigBasket, Swiggy and Urban Company for implementing a loss of pay policy to provide workers with a financial safety net during medical illnesses.
On the Fair Contracts principle, seven out of 12 platforms surveyed were awarded the first point, and five platforms — Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato — were awarded the advanced point for modifying their contracts to reduce the asymmetry in liabilities, and adding a clause for dispute resolution between workers and platforms.
Similarly, for the Fair Management principle, while five firms were awarded the basic point for having a grievance redressal process with the option to connect with a human representative, only Urban Company met the criteria for the second point for instituting regular external audits to check for biases in its work allocation systems.
“We are committed towards empowering our service partners to live respectful middle class lives, constantly improving their earnings & well being, and enabling them to delight our customers,” Abhiraj Singh Bhal, cofounder of Urban Company wrote in a tweet.
On the report’s findings on the Fair Representation principle, Urban Company said that unions and similar collectives were “neither representative nor effective in addressing the needs and wants of all our partners” given the “vastness and hyperlocal nature” of the business.
“We have structured avenues (for example, in-person meetings, fixed weekly walk-ins) where partners can collectively raise their voice through different channels giving them a significant say in how operations or processes get defined,” Bhavya Sharma, director, communications and ESG told ET.
Gig Economy
The findings of the report assume significance in the backdrop of rising gig worker participation in the Indian labour force over the past few years.
In a report titled India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy released in June this year, government think-tank Niti Aayog estimated that the gig workforce is expected to expand to 2.35 crore workers by 2029-30, from 77 lakh in 2020-21.
It also pointed out that 47% of the gig workers were engaged in medium skilled jobs, while 22% were in high skilled and around 31% in low skilled jobs.
As a part of its recommendations, the Niti Aayog report suggested extending social security for gig and platform workers in India, including measures for paid sick leave, health access and insurance.
In the policymaking context, the definitions of a gig worker and a platform worker were provided for in the Code on Social Security, 2020. Even though the code is yet to come into force, it envisages setting up of a Social Security Fund.
One of the sources of the fund will be contributions from aggregator platforms to the tune of 1-2% of their annual turnover.
