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The Institute for a Fair Economy joins the Fairwork project to study working conditions in the Georgian gig economy
Bolt drivers organizing to protest against unfair working conditions
The Institute for a Fair Economy (IFE) has become a member of the Fairwork network. The IFE team, led by researchers Beka Natsvlishvili and Sopo Japaridze, will apply the Fairwork methodology to the digital platforms that dominate Georgia’s labor market to provide an independent analysis of the working conditions at each company. Fairwork is an international research project centered at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, that creates and implements a standardized framework for evaluating the quality of working conditions in the online platform economy.
The platform economy plays an outsized role in the Georgian labor market, and particularly in the capital Tbilisi. Many Georgians, notably young people, are turning to these companies for better job opportunities; however, recent years have seen numerous labor disputes, protests, and strikes. Despite the platforms’ growing importance in the daily lives of workers and consumers, they remain understudied and unregulated.
Fairwork Georgia will conduct a thorough examination on the working conditions and labour rights offered by online platforms. This evaluation will provide detailed information on working risks, wages, job security, and other issues that workers grapple with when partnering with online job platforms to find work. IFE’s research will concentrate on the most popular online labour platforms in Georgia’s ride-hailing and food delivery sectors.
The initiative will allow IFE to provide an independent assessment of the platform-driven labor market in Georgia and identify the areas in which workers need more protection. This research will contribute to the growing body of evidence detailing the realities that workers face in the gig economy and aid in understanding the current state of the digital labour market. The research will help inform consumers, policymakers, labour organisations, and platform workers to ensure that workers have access to quality jobs, fair working conditions, fair compensation, and job security.