Ola, Uber, Dunzo Rated Zero On Index For Gig Workers’ Working Condition

At a time when the gig economy is on a rise in India, some of the major startups such as Ola, Uber, and Dunzo have emerged as the worst performers when it comes to the working conditions of gig workers, a report by Fairwork India Ratings 2022 showed.

Fairwork is a project based at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. It evaluates the work conditions of digital labour platforms in the platform economy globally through its five principles of fair work.

The report, ‘Fairwork India Ratings 2022: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy’, was presented by the Fairwork India team, which was spearheaded by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), in association with Oxford University.

It examined the work conditions of gig workers on digital labour platforms in the country and evaluated 12 platforms offering location-based services in sectors such as domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery, e-pharmacy, and transportation. 

Fairwork allotted two points for each of its five principles – fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation, with a platform eligible for second point only on receiving the first point. Each platform was allotted a score out of 10 points.

As per the report, Amazon Flex, Dunzo, Ola, PharmEasy and Uber failed to open their account and scored zero points. Meanwhile, Urban Company topped the ranking with 7 points, followed by BigBasket (6 points), Flipkart (5 points), Swiggy (5 points) and Zomato (4 points). Quick-commerce startup Zepto scored 2 points, while Porter was at seventh position with 1 point.

No platform scored all the first points across the five principles, the report said. 

The same three platforms that scored the first point for fair pay last year scored a point this year as well. BigBasket, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato were awarded the first point for fair management for having a grievance redressal process with the option to connect with a human representative of the platform. 

However, no other platform publicly committed or provided sufficient evidence to ensure that workers earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after work-related costs, the report said. 

“Even with workers and worker groups repeatedly emphasising the importance of a stable income for platform workers, platforms have been reluctant to publicly commit to, and operationalise a minimum wage policy,” said the report.

It must be noted that the last few months have seen several strikes by delivery executives of startups like Swiggy and Dunzo over alleged unfair payment and other issues. 

Recently, government think tank NITI Aayog also called for extension of social security benefits to gig workers in the country.