Fairwork Pakistan Ratings 2023: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy

The second Fairwork Pakistan report assesses six digital labour platforms operating across various sectors, including ride-hailing, food delivery, and professional beauty services. The report examines the working conditions in Bykea, Careem, inDrive, Uber, Foodpanda, and GharPar. Each platform’s working conditions are assessed based on the five Fairwork Principles, namely: fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.

The six platforms assessed this year fell short in various aspects of fair work practices. There was no evidence that the assessed platforms ensured consistent, fair pay equal to or above the minimum wage or local living wage after deducting work-related expenses. Safety measures and equipment need to be improved, contracts require more transparency and adjustment time, and there needs to be more support for collective worker representation. While basic communication channels and appeals processes were available, they must be documented in contracts or terms and conditions. These findings highlight the urgent need for improvement in labour practices within these platforms. Several workers from ride-hailing platforms reported negative incomes, and are now facing financial burdens due to debts owed to the platforms.

In light of these findings, this report emphasises the pressing requirement to rectify the unequal legal treatment experienced by platform workers. The report includes a new draft bill aimed at implementing the necessary improvements for platform workers. It serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, platform operators, workers, and advocates interested in understanding and promoting fair working conditions in location-based platform work.