Impact case study database

The research above [ R1- R6] has brought about positive change for gig workers and digital labour platforms in multiple countries and directly improved the conditions of employment that popular platforms offer to workers in South Africa, India and Germany. The examples below focus on three South African platforms where the improvements have been most developed. The research has also helped to tighten the health and safety legislation for gig workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Finally, the Fairwork Principles have also been embedded in government policy in Germany at both state (Berlin) and federal (international development) levels.

Improving conditions for gig workers in South Africa

In March 2019 and again in 2020 Fairwork published scores using the Principles framework for 10 platforms operating in South Africa [ R4]. The ranked platforms included global providers (e.g. Uber, Bolt) and local businesses. As part of this process, six platforms engaged in direct dialogue with Fairwork researchers, with three, NoSweat, SweepSouth and GetTOD, subsequently making changes to align their practices with the Fairwork Principles. These changes—concerning health and safety, grievance reporting, non-discrimination, living wages, and freedom of association—directly impact many thousands of South African workers, improving their security and job quality. Specifically:

• The online freelancing platform NoSweat (with over 13,000 registered freelancers in South Africa and the Netherlands) scored 8 out of 10 points in 2019 and 2020 [E1]). Active alignment with the Fairwork principles is stated on its website as “NoSweat fully supports the Fairwork Foundation's initiative” [ E2a]. In 2019, NoSweat developed a confidential grievance reporting portal, and adopted a contractual requirement for clients to protect workers’ health and safety [ E2b]. This contract requirement covers working hours, management and payment of overtime, and protection from injury and disease in the workplace. Companies working with NoSweat must agree to the requirement before hiring gig workers. Wilfred Greyling, NoSweat’s co-founder, attributed this change to the Fairwork Foundation: “Fairwork has helped us formalise those principles and incorporate them into our systems” [ E3a, E3b]. As a result, the platform’s score on the Fair Contracts principle has increased from 1 in 2019 to the maximum 2 in 2020 [ E1]. In 2020, NoSweat stated that they observe the right to free association and accept collective worker representation [ E2b], which increased their score for the Fair Representation principle from 1 in 2019 to 2 in 2020 [ E1].

• South African domestic work platform SweepSouth, which provides work for approximately 3,000 cleaners in Cape Town and Johannesburg, approached Fairwork when their score was lower than they had hoped (7/10 points in 2019 [ E1]; insufficient data for ranking in 2020). The Fairwork team indicated that it needed to meet the higher-level condition for the ‘fair management’ principle and put in place a formal policy of no discrimination against workers. Following discussions with the Fairwork team, SweepSouth committed in 2020 to develop a formal policy of non-discrimination against workers on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion/belief, age or any other legally protected characteristic [ E4]. This is an important step towards enabling workers to assert their rights and seek formal redress in an industry characterised by geographic, racial, and gender inequities.

• South African platform for tradespeople, GetTOD, made changes in early 2020 to align with Fairwork principles in order to receive a score of 8/10 in the 2020 rankings [ E1]. GetTOD is active in South Africa’s four largest cities – Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria – and connects demand and supply for many different services (e.g. plumbing, pest control, flooring, cleaning). GetTOD committed to paying a living wage, stating that: “We ensure that no service providers earn below the living wage (as defined by Fairwork), and our average compensation far exceeds this” [ E5]. They also clarified the disciplinary processes in clause 4.6 of the ‘partner terms’ for workers [ E6].

Legislative change to improve the wellbeing of UK gig workers during COVID-19

The Fairwork Principles [ R4] also played a role in a legal judgment in the UK, relating to gig economy workers’ rights in light of COVID-19. R6, on the COVID-19 response policies of 120 platforms in 23 countries, helped The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWUGB) bring a case against the UK Department of Work and Pensions. Having contributed to R6, the IWUGB claimed that the UK had failed to provide gig workers with the health and safety protection to which they were entitled under EU health and safety law. The EU Directives conferred protections on ‘workers’ but in the UK this had only been applied to ‘employees’ – leaving millions of gig workers unprotected. The judgement was made in the IWUGB’s favour, directly citing R6:

“A report by the Fairwork Project [i.e. R6] … to which the Claimant contributed, made a number of recommendations including: regular, adequate, free provision of PPE – disinfectant, gloves and masks; installation of physical barriers between driver and passengers in all ride-hailing cars; contact free supply chains (both collection and delivery) for delivery workers; daily sanitisation of vehicles and upstream locations – warehouses, hubs et cetera; and free COVID-19 check-ups for workers and their families.” [ E7]

As a result of this judgement, all UK workers now have the right to PPE and to refuse unsafe work. The judgment can be used in legal cases taken via the Health and Safety Executive, local authorities or employment tribunal claims. The IWUGB estimates that this will benefit at least 4,700,000 people working in the UK [ E8].

Fairwork Principles embedded in German policy

The Berlin Senate Administration for Integration, Labour and Social Affairs – the state ministry and highest authority for integration, labour market and social policy – has shown strong interest in gig work conditions because of the rapid growth of digital labour platforms in the city. The Senate Administration have endorsed the Fairwork Principles. An article from January 2020 in the periodical of the Berliner MieterGemeinschaft (one of Berlin’s largest tenant organisations) confirmed that “[t]he Senate Administration for Integration, Labour and Social Affairs has commissioned a number of studies on the situation of gig workers and supports an initiative by the Fairwork Foundation and the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) to develop a certification system for fair work in the digital platform economy” [ E9]. The Senate support Berlin’s Fairwork Secretariat because its “stated aim is to put pressure on platform operators to improve working conditions” [ E9]. The Senate Administration for Integration, Labour and Social Affairs regularly organises international expert meetings and conferences. The September 2020 conference, at which the Fairwork Foundation’s research and ratings were discussed, focused on decent work in the platform economy [ E10]. The 12-Point Policy Paper [ E10] summarising the conference’s main results urges policymakers to promote positive approaches to fair working conditions, including platforms adopting voluntary commitments to decent work as defined by various codes of conduct. These approaches are exemplified by the Fairwork Foundation’s action-research with platforms.

The research by Graham and colleagues has also been taken up at the national level. In 2018, the Federal Government of Germany adopted the Fairwork Principles [ R5] in its Digital Strategy, Shaping Digitalization: Implementation strategy of the Federal Government [ E11], seeking to find practical ways to support individuals and society at large through changes led by digitalization. The Strategy document says: “[e]very challenge we identify in the implementation strategy is mapped into a specific actionable solution. And every actionable solution is accompanied by an implementation plan” [ E11]. The document places a strong emphasis on how those actions enable Germany to support developing countries: “[w]e intend to specifically and responsibly promote the digital transformation in developing countries based on a partnership approach, to create a new outlook, and to thus lay the local foundation for a desirable future”. One of these challenges is to “subsidize the digital sector in developing countries: Cooperate with the private sector in the tech field and leverage digital trade” [ E11]. One of the five implementation steps in response is to “establish a certification system for fair work in the digital platform economy through the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and the Fairwork Foundation” [ E11]. Having indicated Fairwork principles for platform work as one of its development priorities, in 2020 the German Government (via GIZ) provided more than EUR670,000 for the establishment of a Fairwork Secretariat to be based at Berlin Social Science Center (WBZ), the largest independent social science research institute that is not affiliated to a university in Europe [ E12]. The Secretariat is co-directed by Graham and coordinates platform scoring, and policy and industry engagement across over 20 countries worldwide.