This version of the Fairwork principles for gig work was released in June 2020. These principles were used in the upcoming 2021 ratings for South Africa (Year 3).
The latest version (22.09) of the principles came into effect on September 1st, 2022.
*Correction (20/04/2022): The wording of the summary statement of Principle 1 was changed to clarify that the principle asks for a wage floor to be guaranteed by the platform.
Platform workers often have substantial work-related costs to cover, such as transport between jobs, supplies, or fuel, insurance, and maintenance on a vehicle.[1] Workers’ costs sometimes mean their take-home earnings may fall below the local minimum wage.[2] Workers also absorb the costs of extra time commitment, when they spend time waiting or travelling between jobs, or other unpaid activities necessary for their work, which are also considered active hours.[3] To achieve this point platforms must demonstrate that work-related costs do not push workers below local minimum wage.
The platform must satisfy the following:
In some places, the minimum wage is not enough to allow workers to afford a basic but decent standard of living. To achieve this point platforms must ensure that workers earn a living wage.
Platform workers may encounter a number of risks in the course of their work, including accidents and injuries, harmful materials, and crime and violence. To achieve this point platforms must show that they are aware of these risks, and take steps to mitigate them.[7]
Beyond minimising risks that workers may face to their health and safety in the course of their work, platforms have the ability to proactively improve health and safety and working conditions. This may be through provision of training, wellbeing initiatives, health insurance, and other measures. To achieve this point platforms must demonstrate a proactive effort to improve workers’ experiences.
The terms and conditions governing platform work are not always clear and accessible to workers.[8] To achieve this point the platform must demonstrate that workers are able to understand, agree to, and access the conditions of their work at all times, and that they have legal recourse if the platform breaches those conditions.
The platform must satisfy ALL of the following:
In some cases, especially under ‘independent contractor’ classifications, workers carry a disproportionate amount of risk for engaging in the contract. They may be liable for any damage arising in the course of their work, and they may be prevented by unfair clauses from seeking legal redress for grievances. To achieve this point, platforms must demonstrate that risks and liability of engaging in the work is shared between parties.
Regardless of how the platform classifies the contractual status of workers, the platform must satisfy BOTH of the following:
Platform workers can be vulnerable to sudden termination (deactivation), and loss of income, often without due process. Workers may be subject to unfair penalties or disciplinary decisions and may lack the ability to contact the platform to challenge or appeal them. To achieve this point, platforms must demonstrate that workers can meaningfully appeal disciplinary actions.
The majority of platforms do not actively discriminate against particular groups of workers. However, they may inadvertently exacerbate already existing inequalities through their design and management. To achieve this point, platforms must show that they have policies to minimise risks of users discriminating against workers, and that workers are assured that they will not be disadvantaged through management processes. If a traditionally disadvantaged group is significantly underrepresented on their platform, steps are taken by the platform to identify and remove barriers to inclusion.
The right of workers to freely associate is enshrined in the constitution of the International Labour Organisation and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[9] To achieve this point platforms must demonstrate that they observe this right, by ensuring that workers can collectively communicate their wishes and concerns to the platform. They must not hamper or prevent workers’ freedom of association, or penalise workers for associating or expressing demands.
For workers to meaningfully have a voice in determining their working conditions, they must be able to bargain with the platform through a collective or representative body. The platform must recognise this collective body, and make itself available for good faith negotiations. In most cases, such bodies do not yet exist in the platform economy. Where that is the case, the platform should publicly state its willingness to recognise a collective body if one is formed.
The platform must satisfy BOTH of the following:
PLATFORM: Here, the term ‘platform’ is used to refer to a ‘geographically-tethered digital labour platform’ (Woodcock and Graham 2020). There are two points of note here. First, a ‘digital labour platform’ is a company that uses digital resources to mediate value-creating interactions between consumers and individual service-providing workers, i.e. that digitally mediates transactions of labour. Digital platforms like Airbnb or eBay—where goods are exchanged—are not included within this definition. Second, among digital labour platforms, there are two broad types. In the first—’geographically-tethered’, ‘location-based’, or gig work platforms—the work is required to be done in a particular location (e.g. delivering food from a restaurant to an apartment or driving a person from one part of town to another). In contrast, in the second—’cloudwork’ or ‘online work’ platforms—the work can, in theory, be performed from anywhere via the internet (e.g. data categorisation or online freelancing). In these principles, the term ‘platform’ refers only to the first category of geographically-tethered digital labour platforms, a.k.a. gig work platforms.
WORKER: People who find work through platforms, regardless of their employment status (e.g. employees or independent contractors).
SUBCONTRACTING: Some platforms outsource parts of their operations to other enterprises. While some of these companies operate under the same name as the main company, or a slightly different version of it (e.g. Amazon and Amazon Flex), there might also be others that provide their services to the platform but also carry out their own operations (e.g. Amazon, DPD and myHermes). Where subcontracting relations are in place, the responsibility for ensuring fairness standards still rests on the main platform that outsources its operations.
CONTRACTS: All written agreements between parties about the terms of the work including terms and conditions. These may be signed in-person or electronically.
e < M
M ≤ e < 1.5M
1.5M ≤ e < 2M
2M ≤ e
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