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A year of change: Presenting the Fairwork 2020 annual report
2020 has been a year of unpredicted and unprecedented challenges. More than 60 million people have fallen ill with COVID-19 and many countries face the highest unemployment rates in decades. During this time, gig workers have played an essential role providing delivery, cleaning, and care services, enduring unsafe and precarious conditions as they carry out essential work. The pandemic has highlighted the urgency and importance of improving working conditions for platform workers. Our annual report presents an overview of Fairwork’s impact over the past year.
This year we have launched three sets of annual ratings and reports assessing platforms in Germany, South Africa, and India. Platforms in all three countries have implemented changes in response to our rating process. Yet our research also indicates there is much work left to be done. This was especially visible when we surveyed platform policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that indicated many workers were struggling to manage the effects of the pandemic on their livelihoods, and critically, their health and safety. This year we also expanded our work to consider the experiences of online workers undertaking work arranged and performed over the internet. Beyond ratings and reports, Fairwork has also expanded its outreach and presence around the world. We are now operating in over 20 countries across six continents!
You can read the latest on our work in this report. In the coming year, we remain committed to giving voice to platform workers and building a safer, fairer world. Our growing network will allow us to collaborate with workers, advocates, policymakers, and business leaders to conduct meaningful ratings and research, enact change, and envision and build a better future of work.
The Fairwork team would like to acknowledge our global network of collaborators, whose efforts are behind all the impact and accomplishments outlined in the annual report. In addition, we are grateful for the financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the European Research Council (ERC), and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)/Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
Feedback on any of our work is always welcome and appreciated. If you’d like to get in touch, head over to our Contact page.