Fairwork Egypt Ratings 2022: Platform Workers Amidst Egypt’s Economic Crisis

This report examines digital labour platforms that provide on-demand work in Egypt via apps or web interfaces in the service sector, including domestic work, food delivery, ride-sharing/transportation, and tutoring. The report highlights both the positive developments and the challenges to decent and fair work standards represented by digital labour platforms, including issues faced by platform workers in light of surging inflation rates and rising unemployment. Our research shows that while platform work has enabled workers to generate new income, or supplement already existing ones, its impact has been diminished as a result of rising inflation and the substantial increase in the cost of living. 

This year’s report, which marks the second cycle of our research in Egypt, evaluates 10 digital labour platforms according to five principles of fair work: Breadfast, Elmenus, Filkhedma, inDrive, Mrsool, Orcas, Swvl, Talabat, Taskty, and Uber. Since last year, the Fairwork Egypt team’s research has had a positive impact on working conditions in the platforms under study. Dialogue with platforms has resulted in an increased willingness of many of them to improve working conditions for their workers, with four platforms improving their score since last year.