Join the Pledge: Together for Fair Platform Work!

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The gig economy is growing fast, but workers on these platforms often experience low pay, poor conditions, and a lack of job security.

Fairwork works in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and Latin America to rate gig economy platforms against five principles of decent work shows that fair and unfair working conditions are choices made by platforms rather than inevitable outcomes of platform work.

Organisations

Are you an organisation? We are seeking to engage with organisations, whether current or potential users of platform labour, that would like to demonstrate their public commitment to fairer platform work.

Organisations like universities, schools, businesses, and charities can make a difference by committing to use fairer platforms guided by our Fairwork principles and ratings.
Local governments and administrations can support fairer platform work by introducing meaningful regulation that encourages minimum standards for platforms operating in their areas, or which are eligible for public funding.
Socially responsible investors or rating agencies can help improve the working conditions of gig workers by making sure that they, or their clients, invest only in those platforms that offer better labour standards.

There may be further ways for you to support our efforts to contribute to a fairer future of platform work, demonstrate this support to the wider public, and create meaningful change that we can explore together!

Individuals

Do you want to support individually? Ever wondered how much the driver who drove you home the other night makes? Or what happens if the person delivering your lunch gets in a road accident? Maybe you have hired a translator, a graphic designer, a personal trainer, a virtual assistant, or a therapist via an online platform.

Millions of people around the world work through online platforms. They power our digital economy. But behind the seamless services we enjoy there are workers that often struggle to make a living, facing precarious conditions and a lack of basic protections.

Join the movement for better working conditions by committing to ‘Fairwork’s 5 Simple Steps.’ Your signature adds strength to the thousands already demanding fair treatment for workers in the gig economy and urges platforms to prioritize fairness and justice for those who power our digital economy.

Do you use platforms for translation or transcription services in your organisation? Read our new report on how to make ethical decisions in the sector!

Fairwork Partners

Learn more about the current Fairwork Partners and their commitments to fair platform work.

McDonald’s Germany

Fairwork analyses the working conditions of digital labour platforms such as delivery services. To this end, the project has developed five principles of fair labour, which we at McDonald’s Germany support. We also expect our delivery partners to respect and comply with human rights. For this reason, we have joined the Fairwork Pledge and are delighted to be a partner.

Learning Lions

Learning Lions is a non-profit organisation providing young adults in impoverished rural areas of Eastern Africa with IT and media skills.

Learning Lions have committed to include the Fairwork Cloudwork ratings in their academy curricula for their trainees so that they can understand the differences in working conditions between online labour platforms and guide their decision on which platforms they want to work for in the future.

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

The WZB is one of Germany’s leading research institutions in the field of Social Sciences employing around 200 scientists and about 150 administrative staff members. The WZB also hosts the Fairwork Secretariat. As a Fairwork partner, the WZB has made the Fairwork principles and ratings a criterion in the procurement process for contracting services via digital platforms. When employees want to use digital platforms – e.g. for services such as data entry, data cleaning, filling out surveys, transcriptions, translations or proof-reading – they are now required to take the Fairwork ratings into account and to choose, where possible, a platform that fulfils at least the minimum standards of fair work as set out by the Fairwork Principles.

Meatspace Press

Meatspace Press is an independent publisher that focuses on digital technology, labour and society. As Fairwork Partner, Meatspace Press has committed to consulting Fairwork Scores when hiring outside experts, consultants, and service providers through digital labour platforms and to choose better rating platforms, where available.

Solidarity Centre AFL-CIO

The Solidarity Center is the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization helping workers attain safe and healthy workplaces, family-supporting wages, dignity on the job, widespread democracy and greater equity at work and in their community. Allied with the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center assists workers across the globe as, together, they fight discrimination, exploitation and the systems that entrench poverty—to achieve shared prosperity in the global economy.

Labor Tech Research Network

Labor Tech Research Network is an interdisciplinary and transnational group of experts concerned with technology and work. They are committed to sustained reflection and action on the promise and perils of technological developments, especially as they impact the workplace.

Labor Tech Research Network promotes scholar-activists, offer resources for social justice activities, and create a home for critical scholarship.

GIZ

As a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, GIZ is dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world.

GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security.

Commissioned by BMZ, GIZ is the main funder of the Fairwork project. As a Fairwork partner, they are committed to help establish the Fairwork principles as a global benchmark for fair platform work.

Internet Bolivia Foundation

The Internet Bolivia Foundation promotes digital rights and digital inclusion in Bolivia by implementing projects to advocate for better public policies, helping to develop the skills of different groups (most of which are vulnerable populations) and doing evidence-based research.

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) was founded in 2011 to research the development of the internet from a societal perspective and better understand the digitalisation of all spheres of life. As the first institute in Germany with a focus on internet and society, HIIG has established an understanding that centres on the deep interconnectedness of digital innovations and societal processes. The development of technology reflects norms, values and networks of interests, and conversely, technologies, once established, influence social values.

Social Justice Platform

Social Justice Platform is an independent research collective and collaborative learning space for action-oriented researchers interested in social justice issues. The platform includes a diverse team of researchers from the fields of economics, political science, sociology, mathematics, history, and anthropology from both academic and practical backgrounds. The platform encourages researchers to share experiences and methodologies, and to forge their interests within an interdisciplinary framework enjoying the full academic freedom it provides.

Deutscher Verband der freien Übersetzer und Dolmetscher e. V.

The DVÜD e. V. represents the interests of professional translators and interpreters in Germany.

Their aim is the greater recognition of the two professions, which require the highest levels of competence and education, but are not protected by any regulations.

The DVÜD thus lobbies on behalf of the industry, and aims to ensure that the business community in Germany is conscious of the significance of translation and interpretation.

Jobtech Alliance

The Jobtech Alliance is an ecosystem-building initiative around inclusive jobtech in Africa launched in late 2021. We’re interested in digital platforms which connect people to work opportunities that build livelihoods – this includes gigmatching platforms, jobmatching, e-commerce marketplaces, and more. The Jobtech Alliance helps jobtech platforms to grow and create more jobs.

Oxford Internet Institute

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching department of the University of Oxford, dedicated to the social science of the Internet. Since its founding in 2001, research from the OII has had a significant impact on policy debate, formulation and implementation around the globe, as well as a secondary impact on people’s wellbeing, safety and understanding. Drawing on many different disciplines, the OII takes a combined approach to tackling society’s big questions, with the aim of positively shaping the development of the digital world for the public good. By signing the pledge, the Oxford Internet Institute has committed to integrating Fairwork principles in their operations.

Coonecta

Coonecta’s mission is to support cooperatives to enter the digital economy. They created RadarCoop, the first Brazilian mapping of the entrepreneurial and innovative cooperative ecosystem, and are in the process of launching AceleraCoop, a cooperative acceleration programme.

MindShop Knowledge Society

MindShop is a Mexican knowledge society for continuing education, offering educational courses and resources on philosophy, mathematics, Anthropocene studies, physics, and cognitive science to the general public. By signing the pledge, MindShop has committed to increasing the visibility of Fairwork in Mexico and supporting their principles throughout their work.

The Policy Initiative

The Policy Initiative (TPI) is a homegrown and independent think-tank in Lebanon founded in February 2021. TPI endeavours to empower the public to demand a better alternative and bring policies back to the people.

TPI aims to critically and empirically assess existing policies and generate meaningful alternatives. They also seek to engage with like-minded entities to harness the immense political and intellectual energy that still exists in the country.

As part of this mission, TPI runs the Fairwork Lebanon research that assesses platform workers’ working conditions in the country and advocates for a fairer future of work.

Novi Sindikat is a trade union in Croatia that advocates for workers’ rights and better working conditions. It is known for its active role in organizing strikes, protests, and negotiations with employers and the government. The union represents a diverse range of industries, including manufacturing, public services, and education. Novi Sindikat focuses on issues such as fair wages, job security, and workplace safety. It aims to strengthen workers’ voices and influence labor policies in Croatia. The union often collaborates with other trade unions and international labor organizations to promote solidarity and social justice.