The third Fairwork report for South Africa continues to chart the evolution of the national gig economy. In South Africa, digital labour platforms could hold the potential to reduce the extremely high unemployment and inequality. However, the annual South African Fairwork ratings provide evidence that platform workers, as in so many countries worldwide, continue to face unfair work conditions and lack the benefits and protections afforded to employees.
The Fairwork South Africa 2021 ratings evaluate the working conditions in 12 digital labour platforms (Uber, UberEats, Bolt, inDriver, MrD, Droppa, PicUp, getTOD, SweepSouth, NoSweat, M4Jam, SecretAgent) against five global principles of fair work – fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.
We gave each platform a fairness rating out of ten, with points awarded only if there is clear evidence that the principle is being met. GetTOD leads the 2021 table with nine points, while M4Jam, SweepSouth, and NoSweat are tied in second place with eight out of ten points. At the bottom of the table, there is Droppa with 2 points, Bolt and inDriver with 1 point, and SecretAgent with 0 points.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
This cookie remains on your computer for 365 days, but you can adjust your preferences at any time by clicking on the "Cookie settings" link in the website footer.
Please note that if you visit the Oxford University website, any cookies you accept there will appear on our site here too, this being a subdomain. To control them, you must change your cookie preferences on the main University website.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
This website uses the following additional cookies from third party websites:
These cookies will remain on your computer for 365 days, but you can edit your preferences at any time through the "Cookie Settings" in the website footer.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
This website uses Google Tags and Google Analytics to collect anonymised information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. Keeping these cookies enabled helps the OII improve our website.
Enabling this option will allow cookies from:
These cookies will remain on your website for 365 days, but you can edit your cookie preferences at any time via the "Cookie Settings" button in the website footer.