GCRF Decent Work: FAIRWORK in the Platform Economy in the Global South
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Internet Institute
Abstract
There are millions of platform workers who live all over the world, doing work that is outsourced or organised via digital platforms or apps in the gig economy. This work can include jobs as varied as taxi driving using Uber, translation on Upwork, or the training of machine learning algorithms through Amazon's Mechanical Turk.
Despite the potential of such work to give jobs to those who need them, platform workers have little ability to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers, who are often on the other side of the world. Our previous research has shown that platforms often operate in relatively unregulated ways, and can encourage a race to the bottom in terms of workers' ability to defend existing jobs, liveable wages, and dignified working conditions.
The potentials and risks of platform work touch down starkly in South Africa. A country that, by some measures, has the world's highest income inequality, and 28% unemployment rates. At the same time, the country has relatively well-developed internet infrastructure, and a relatively stable political climate and state/legal institutions. These factors make the country a site in which the platform economy is nascent enough to allow us to co-develop solutions with a multi-disciplinary team from Law and the Social Sciences that will offer tangible opportunities to influence policy and practice surrounding digital work. As other middle- and low-income countries quickly develop their internet infrastructures and millions of more potential digital workers rush online in search of opportunities, the interventions that this project proposes will be of crucial need if we are to avoid some of the 'race to the bottom' that the current world of digital work is bringing into being.
Our project will culminate in two key initiatives. First, building on a work package of legal research, a Code of Practice will be developed to serve as an interpretive tool to outline the ways that existing regulations can be made applicable to platform workers. Second, we will develop a 'Fairwork Foundation.' Much like the Fairtrade Foundation has been able to certify the production chains of commodities like coffee or chocolate, the Fairwork Foundation will certify the production networks of the platform economy, and therefore harness consumer power to significantly contribute to the welfare and job quality of digital workers. This programme of work aims to not just uncover where fair and unfair work takes place, but also seeks to codify that knowledge into both a 'Fairwork certification scheme' and an annual ranking of platforms. These two initiatives will ultimately allow for the development of an international standard for good-quality digital working conditions.
These objectives will be achieved with 5 project stages. First, the Law team will analyse S. African labour laws, social security laws, and other legal and policy regulations relating to the platform economy, and ask how those laws might be adapted to provide decent work standards for digital platform workers. At the same time, the Social Science team will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to map the key issues faced by S. African platform workers: developing a rich understanding of how platform work may be failing to live up to decent work standards. Third, we develop meaningful decent work standards for platform work that happens outside of the Global North. Fourth, we take those standards and use them in a process of action research in which we seek to certify the digital work platforms: assigning them a Fairwork certification if they pass. Finally, through an extended process of stakeholder engagement and outreach with workers, platforms, and policy makers, we plan a short-term strategy of pressuring platforms to change their policies to improve working conditions and a longer-term strategy of influencing the direction that regulation takes in a currently highly unregulated sector.
Despite the potential of such work to give jobs to those who need them, platform workers have little ability to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers, who are often on the other side of the world. Our previous research has shown that platforms often operate in relatively unregulated ways, and can encourage a race to the bottom in terms of workers' ability to defend existing jobs, liveable wages, and dignified working conditions.
The potentials and risks of platform work touch down starkly in South Africa. A country that, by some measures, has the world's highest income inequality, and 28% unemployment rates. At the same time, the country has relatively well-developed internet infrastructure, and a relatively stable political climate and state/legal institutions. These factors make the country a site in which the platform economy is nascent enough to allow us to co-develop solutions with a multi-disciplinary team from Law and the Social Sciences that will offer tangible opportunities to influence policy and practice surrounding digital work. As other middle- and low-income countries quickly develop their internet infrastructures and millions of more potential digital workers rush online in search of opportunities, the interventions that this project proposes will be of crucial need if we are to avoid some of the 'race to the bottom' that the current world of digital work is bringing into being.
Our project will culminate in two key initiatives. First, building on a work package of legal research, a Code of Practice will be developed to serve as an interpretive tool to outline the ways that existing regulations can be made applicable to platform workers. Second, we will develop a 'Fairwork Foundation.' Much like the Fairtrade Foundation has been able to certify the production chains of commodities like coffee or chocolate, the Fairwork Foundation will certify the production networks of the platform economy, and therefore harness consumer power to significantly contribute to the welfare and job quality of digital workers. This programme of work aims to not just uncover where fair and unfair work takes place, but also seeks to codify that knowledge into both a 'Fairwork certification scheme' and an annual ranking of platforms. These two initiatives will ultimately allow for the development of an international standard for good-quality digital working conditions.
These objectives will be achieved with 5 project stages. First, the Law team will analyse S. African labour laws, social security laws, and other legal and policy regulations relating to the platform economy, and ask how those laws might be adapted to provide decent work standards for digital platform workers. At the same time, the Social Science team will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to map the key issues faced by S. African platform workers: developing a rich understanding of how platform work may be failing to live up to decent work standards. Third, we develop meaningful decent work standards for platform work that happens outside of the Global North. Fourth, we take those standards and use them in a process of action research in which we seek to certify the digital work platforms: assigning them a Fairwork certification if they pass. Finally, through an extended process of stakeholder engagement and outreach with workers, platforms, and policy makers, we plan a short-term strategy of pressuring platforms to change their policies to improve working conditions and a longer-term strategy of influencing the direction that regulation takes in a currently highly unregulated sector.
Planned Impact
Workers, customers, platforms, and labour sector organisations are all key beneficiaries. The primary aim of this transformative project is to generate social and economic benefit for some of the millions of workers who perform digital work. Many platform workers in South Africa and elsewhere have little individual or collective bargaining power, and they often lack the protection of existing rules and regulations of other kinds of workers, and existing laws are inconsistently applied. As ever more people come online looking for jobs, the prospects for workers collaborating instead of competing looks bleak.
This project offers viable strategies to change that by providing a route to pressure employers to improve wages and working conditions. It does so by understanding the problems faced by workers, the legal contexts that they face those problems in, developing a Code of Practice and a 'fair work' certification scheme, and ultimately rating platforms against those criteria.
This action-research project will provide demonstrable impact for digital workers, customers, and platforms. Digital workers will benefit, in the first instance, from our legal research that will outline the ways that existing regulations can be made applicable to platform workers. That strand of work will also develop longer-term relationships for policy changes. Second, our certification process provides an important means to address the weak bargaining power that platform workers have by pressuring platforms to meet key minimum standards for the work that they do.
For customers, the project offers easily accessible information about the platform and whether it provides fair pay and conditions to workers. This is analogous to the Fairtrade logo, indicating whether the platform has met standards across the supply chain. For platforms, it provides a way to clearly indicate whether their own practices have achieved the certification for fair work and compare with other operators. The rating system allows platforms to display this to potential clients and customers on their websites, products, and through associated social media campaigns.
We will run annual multi-stakeholder workshops at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that bring together platforms, workers, unions, and scholars in order to ensure that the rating criteria are constantly adapted to current conditions. The purpose of our funded research will then be to apply the criteria to a selection of platforms. This data will be used to assign a certification to 12 sample platforms, resulting in detailed documentation that will appear on our website and a final report. These meetings, and the outreach of research will benefit other national and international bodies involved with labour policy such as the WTO, the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and international development organisations (e.g. DFID, USAID, GIZ). Furthermore, because this project emerges from an existing GCRF funded network on the "Development Implications of Digital Economies" (DIODE), and will feed back our work into the network in a final workshop (with representatives from development practice in 11 developing countries), our ultimate goal is to allow the Fairwork concept to scale beyond South Africa. Some of the specific details will necessarily need to be tailored to different local contexts (for instance minimum wage rates). However, scaling will still be possible once we both establish core criteria (for instance, the need for minimum wage rates), and best-practices for engaging with multiple stakeholders and running the rating system itself. In the final months of the project, we will work with our DIODE partners and UNI (the global union federation for services that have 900 affiliated unions worldwide), expand the project internationally by promoting use of the Fairwork criteria and logo.
This project offers viable strategies to change that by providing a route to pressure employers to improve wages and working conditions. It does so by understanding the problems faced by workers, the legal contexts that they face those problems in, developing a Code of Practice and a 'fair work' certification scheme, and ultimately rating platforms against those criteria.
This action-research project will provide demonstrable impact for digital workers, customers, and platforms. Digital workers will benefit, in the first instance, from our legal research that will outline the ways that existing regulations can be made applicable to platform workers. That strand of work will also develop longer-term relationships for policy changes. Second, our certification process provides an important means to address the weak bargaining power that platform workers have by pressuring platforms to meet key minimum standards for the work that they do.
For customers, the project offers easily accessible information about the platform and whether it provides fair pay and conditions to workers. This is analogous to the Fairtrade logo, indicating whether the platform has met standards across the supply chain. For platforms, it provides a way to clearly indicate whether their own practices have achieved the certification for fair work and compare with other operators. The rating system allows platforms to display this to potential clients and customers on their websites, products, and through associated social media campaigns.
We will run annual multi-stakeholder workshops at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that bring together platforms, workers, unions, and scholars in order to ensure that the rating criteria are constantly adapted to current conditions. The purpose of our funded research will then be to apply the criteria to a selection of platforms. This data will be used to assign a certification to 12 sample platforms, resulting in detailed documentation that will appear on our website and a final report. These meetings, and the outreach of research will benefit other national and international bodies involved with labour policy such as the WTO, the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and international development organisations (e.g. DFID, USAID, GIZ). Furthermore, because this project emerges from an existing GCRF funded network on the "Development Implications of Digital Economies" (DIODE), and will feed back our work into the network in a final workshop (with representatives from development practice in 11 developing countries), our ultimate goal is to allow the Fairwork concept to scale beyond South Africa. Some of the specific details will necessarily need to be tailored to different local contexts (for instance minimum wage rates). However, scaling will still be possible once we both establish core criteria (for instance, the need for minimum wage rates), and best-practices for engaging with multiple stakeholders and running the rating system itself. In the final months of the project, we will work with our DIODE partners and UNI (the global union federation for services that have 900 affiliated unions worldwide), expand the project internationally by promoting use of the Fairwork criteria and logo.
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Collaboration)
- Technical University Berlin (Collaboration)
- Infolady Social Enterprise Ltd (iSocial) (Collaboration)
- De La Salle University (Collaboration)
- TU Wien (Collaboration)
- Unisinos University (Collaboration)
- Centre for Labour Research (Collaboration)
- Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) (Collaboration)
- University of California Hastings College of the Law (Collaboration)
- Del Rosario University (Collaboration)
- American University in Cairo (Collaboration)
- International Institute of Information Technology (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF GHANA (Collaboration)
- Public Policy Research Centre (Collaboration)
- Gadjah Mada University (Collaboration)
- Qhala (Collaboration)
- Adolfo Ibáñez University (Collaboration)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (Collaboration)
- University of Leuven (Collaboration)
- International Labour Organisation (ILO) (Project Partner)
- Uni Global Union (Project Partner)
Publications
Howson K
(2022)
A Research Agenda for the Gig Economy and Society
Graham, M.
(2019)
The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for Improving Platform Work
Ustek-Spilda, F
(2020)
The Gig Economy and Covid-19: Looking Ahead
Howson, K.
(2021)
Work in the Planetary Labour Market: Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2021
Tsibolane, P.
(2021)
Cracking the future of work. Automation and labor platforms in the Global South.
Englert, S.,
(2021)
A Modern Guide To Labour and the Platform Economy
Du Toit, D.
(2020)
Code of Good Practice for The Regulation of Platform Work in South Africa
Howson K
(2020)
Towards fair work in the South African gig economy
Howson, K.
(2020)
Fairwork South Africa Ratings 2020: Labour Standards in the Gig Economy
Heeks R
(2019)
A Living Wage for South African Platform Workers, Fairwork
Bezuidenhout, L.
(2021)
Fairwork South Africa Ratings 2021: Labour Standards in the Gig Economy.
Heeks R
(2021)
Digital platforms and institutional voids in developing countries: The case of ride-hailing markets
in World Development
Heeks R
(2021)
Systematic evaluation of gig work against decent work standards: The development and application of the Fairwork framework
in The Information Society
Du Toit, D
(2022)
Protecting Platform Workers: Options and Challenges
in Industrial Law Journal
Howson K
(2021)
Driving the digital value network: Economic geographies of global platform capitalism
in Global Networks
Van Belle J
(2023)
Fair work in South Africa's gig economy: A journey of engaged scholarship
in Digital Geography and Society
Arriagada A
(2020)
TAMING PLATFORM CAPITALISM: STRUGGLES FROM THE GLOBAL SOUTH MEET STRUGGLES FROM THE GLOBAL NORTH
in AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research
Title | Fairwork exhibition on the working conditions in the platform economy. |
Description | Fairwork commenced a study to understand public's opinion about the working conditions on the platforms and the results were displayed across billboard campaigns. We have held campaigns in the UK, Brazil and Colombia. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | Fairwork's visibility on the action research it does on investigating platform work across the world gained wider attention. Fairwork drew further attention to the fact that consumers are also interested in supporting platforms that provide better working conditions for workers. |
URL | https://twitter.com/TowardsFairWork |
Title | Five animated videos explaining the Fairwork principles |
Description | Fairwork has produced five short animated videos which each centre on a different Fairwork principle, explaining the principle through the perspective of a gig worker. The videos are aimed at predominantly at workers in South Africa, to familiarise them with the Fairwork principles and how they relate to their experience. They are an important component of our outreach with key stakeholders, and are intended to help grow our impact by encouraging platform workers and users to support the Fairwork principles and scoring system. The videos will be released in March 2021 |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | The videos will be released soon, but have note yet been disseminated. |
Description | This award allowed us to develop worker-guided and legally-informed principles for fair work in the platform economy. These principles have now been refined over three years of research. They serve as an international benchmark for policymakers, workers, platforms, and consumers, in defining and delineating fair labour standards for digital workers. This in itself is the first major achievement of this project. These principles have underpinned the developed of a Code of Good Practice for the Regulation of platform work in South Africa. The legal team has analysed the gaps in the current regulatory and enforcement framework in South Africa, which leave platform workers vulnerable and unprotected. This Code was unveiled at the 2020 South African Society for Labour Law conference. We are already seeing the how the Code is contributing to and informing legal discussions and policy dialogue in this area, with a prominent South African law firm suggesting it as a basis for alternative regulation. In addition to the work of the legal team, the principles have been applied and tested in South Africa by the social science team, through two annual 'scoring rounds' (with a third underway). The project team has developed a robust action-research methodology designed to leverage positive impact for platform workers in line with the principles. Prominent South African platforms have now been through the scoring (/'certification') process to receive a Fairwork score out of 10. These scores are displayed on an annual league table to provide a quick comparative overview of the best and worst practices in the platform economy. Two key high-level findings are notable. First, that there is a spectrum of managerial practices in the South African platform economy; with some platforms unable to evidence fair work standards, and others demonstrating a high level of commitment to fair work standards. This finding shows that it is possible for digital labour platforms to provide decent work opportunities, and that some actively choose not to. By empirically demonstrating this differentiation, we empower workers and platform users to hold platforms to a higher standard, and we incentivise the poorer performing platforms to improve, in order to avoid the reputational and competitive risk of ranking low in the Fairwork league table. Indeed, three platforms have made changes to their operations to better align with the Fairwork principles (changes are detailed in 'research datasets, databases & models' section).Therefore a key finding of this research has been that while most digital labour platforms have done little to take responsibility for the working conditions they preside over, better practice examples do exist, and overall improvement is possible. |
Exploitation Route | The project's objectives have been met and exceeded. We have secured further funding to support the implementation of the Fairwork scoring system elsewhere, and have now established partnerships with researchers to carry out in scoring in more than 20 countries. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice,Retail,Transport |
URL | http://www.fair.work |
Description | After three annual rounds of Fairwork ratings for South African platforms, we are seeing impact begin to build -- our public recognition is growing in South Africa, and we receive regular media coverage. Our first and most direct pathway to improving working conditions in the gig economy is by engaging directly with platforms operating in South Africa. Many platforms are aware of our research, and eager to improve their performance relative to previous years, and to other platforms. In 2021, we scored 12 platforms operating in South Africa, including both global (e.g. Uber, Bolt), and local platforms. Of these, six platforms engaged in direct dialogue with us, with three platforms (NoSweat, SweepSouth and GetTOD) subsequently making changes to align with Fairwork principles. These changes-concerning health and safety, grievance reporting, non-discrimination, living wages, and freedom of association - directly impacting many thousands of South African workers, improving their security and job quality. Specifically: > The online freelancing platform NoSweat (over 13,000 registered freelancers in South Africa and the Netherlands, E1a), has actively aligned itself with the Fairwork principles, stating "NoSweat fully supports the Fairwork Foundation's initiative". NoSweat has now (1) developed a confidential grievance reporting portal, (2) adopted a contractual requirement for clients to protect workers' health and safety, (3) committed to ensuring workers earn above a living wage, and (4) stated that they observe the right to free association and accept collective worker representation. NoSweat has also (5) created a non-technical version of their T&Cs to ensure that all workers have a thorough understanding of the contract they are committing to. This has served as a model for M4Jam to adopt a similar approach, with a number of other platforms likely to follow suit. Ensuring that all gig workers have access to their T&Cs in clear, non-legal language is an important factor in ensuring fair contracts and management. 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". > South African domestic work platform SweepSouth, which provides work for approximately 3,000 cleaners in Cape Town and Johannesburg, has (6) committed to develop a formal policy of non-discrimination against workers, after engaging with us in 2020. 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. SweepSouth has now also (7) committed to recognising collective bargaining, and committed to (8) removing the personal addresses of its workers from customer invoices. > South African platform for tradespeople, GetTOD, made changes in 2020 to align with Fairwork principles by (9) committing to paying a living wage, (10) clarifying the disciplinary processes in the contract, (11) committed to recognising collective bargaining, and (12) converted from UK to South African law as the legal framework identified in the contract. We also engage with policy makers and government to advocate for extending appropriate legal protections to all platform workers, irrespective of their legal classification. In 2019 we engaged with senior officials in the Department of Employment and Labour on creating a floor of legally enforceable rights for South African gig workers. Similarly, the Code of Good Practice, developed with Fairwork partners and presented at the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW) conference in Johannesburg on November 6th 2020, illustrates how South African law can be interpreted and applied in order to give better protection to the rights of platform workers in accordance with Constitutional principles. This impact is ongoing, and will continue for many years post-award, supported by the additional funding we have received, which has allowed us to expand this work to an additional 26 countries worldwide. In particular, our current efforts to institutionalise the Fairwork Principles, through public commitments from companies that buy gig-labour to consider the Principles when doing so, will further embed the Principles (visibly) in the supplier-buyer ecosystem. In this way, we enable consumers to be workers' allies in the fight for a fairer gig economy, and help inform the procurement, investment and partnership policies of large organisations. |
First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice,Retail,Transport |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | Bottles -- Committed to support the development of a workers' organisation |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | The platform committed to support the development of a workers' organisation that could undertake collective bargaining - if one were to exist |
URL | https://fair.work/en/fw/publications/gig-workers-platforms-and-government-during-covid-19-in-south-a... |
Description | Building a Fair Digital Work Platform in Kenya |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Description | Building a Fair Digital Work Platform in Kenya |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Description | Citation in legal debate about worker classification in South Africa |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
URL | https://www.webberwentzel.com/News/Pages/uber-drivers-in-south-africa-employees-or-independent-contr... |
Description | GetTOD -- Clarified disciplinary processes in contract |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Workers of the gig work platform GetTOD now benefit from increased clarity on disciplinary procedures. |
Description | GetTOD -- Statement on union recognition added to contract |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | The gig work platform GetTOD has stated on worker contracts that it now recognises unions. |
Description | GetTOD -- commitment to pay workers above a living wage |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | The platform "GetTOD" has agreed to pay its workers above the living wage. |
URL | https://www.gettod.com/hero/ |
Description | House of Lords COVID-19 committee |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
URL | https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/media-centre/house-of-lords-media-notices/2021/january-2021... |
Description | Included in the German Government's central digital strategy |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
URL | https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/digital-made-in-de/innovation-und-digitale-transformat... |
Description | Included the UK Future of Work Commission's Flagship report (chaired by Tom Watson MP) as a recommendation |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
URL | https://www.tom-watson.com/fow |
Description | NoSweat -- Commitment to pay workers above a living wage |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Workers of the gig work platform NoSweat will nw be paid above a living wage |
URL | https://nosweat.work/fairwork_foundation |
Description | NoSweat -- Instituted policy to pay over the minimum wage after costs |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Impact on gig workers of the NoSweat platform -- their workers will now be paid over the minimum wage after costs |
URL | https://fair.work/en/fw/publications/gig-workers-platforms-and-government-during-covid-19-in-south-a... |
Description | NoSweat -- developed portal and process for workers to lodge grievances |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Workers of the gig work platform "NoSweat" now have a mechanism to lodge complaints, after the platform developed a portal and process for workers to lodge grievances |
URL | https://nosweat.work/freelancer_grievance |
Description | NoSweat -- has documented a grievance channel and process |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Workers of the gig work platform NoSweat now benefit from a documented grievance channel and process. |
Description | NoSweat -- improved protection of workers' health and safety |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Impact on health and safety of workers of the platform NoSweat - which has changed its buyer terms and conditions so clients on the platform agree to protect workers' health and safety |
URL | https://nosweat.work/buyer_terms |
Description | NoSweat -- simplifying 'explainer' added to accompany contracts |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Gig workers on the platform NoSweat now benefit from contracts that are easier to understand. NoSweat has added a simplifying 'explainer' to accompany the contract. |
Description | South Africa Year 2 Report Launch (forthcoming in March 2020) |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | South Africa in the Digital Age consultation - public private growth initiative between the private sector and the Presidency |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Description | Submission to the Presidential Commission in South Africa |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Impact | In late 2019, Fairwork made a submission to the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa with recommendations and creating a floor of legally enforceable rights for South African gig workers. |
Description | SweepSouth -- commitment to recognise a trade union or collective body of workers |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Sweepsouth publicly commited to recognize a trade union or collective body should one be organised by their workers. |
URL | https://help.sweepsouth.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408790946962-Commitment-to-SweepStars |
Description | Sweepsouth -- Committed to develop a policy on non-discrimination |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | The gig work platform Sweepsouth has committed to develop a policy on non-discrimination of its workers within the next 12 months |
Description | Swepsouth -- commitment to remove personal addresses of Sweepstars from customer invoices |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | Sweepsouth has committed to removing the personal addresses of its workers from customer invoices. |
Description | The Future of work in Africa |
Geographic Reach | Africa |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | Darcy du Toit has met with Uber in a consultation meeting in March 2019. He presented fairwork and our scores in South Africa and discussed how fairwork standards can be established in ride hailing industry. |
Description | Decent Work Standards in the Platform Economy in the Global South |
Amount | $74,988 (CAD) |
Organisation | International Development Research Centre |
Sector | Public |
Country | Canada |
Start | 01/2020 |
End | 01/2021 |
Description | Establishing the Fairwork Secretariat at Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) |
Amount | € 940,453 (EUR) |
Organisation | German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH |
Sector | Public |
Country | Germany |
Start | 11/2021 |
End | 08/2023 |
Description | Establishing the Fairwork Secretariat at Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) |
Amount | € 686,439 (EUR) |
Organisation | German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH |
Sector | Public |
Country | Germany |
Start | 11/2020 |
End | 06/2022 |
Description | Fairwork Foundation |
Amount | € 1,499,963 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 19.2010.7-004.00 |
Organisation | German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH |
Sector | Public |
Country | Germany |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 06/2022 |
Description | Fairwork in the US |
Amount | £148,062 (GBP) |
Organisation | Ford Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 01/2021 |
End | 05/2023 |
Description | Fairwork: Towards building a sustainable and fair future of work 2021-2023 |
Amount | € 3,299,488 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 81276518 |
Organisation | German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH |
Sector | Public |
Country | Germany |
Start | 11/2021 |
End | 08/2023 |
Description | Match Match: Combatting pay opacity on digital labour platforms |
Amount | £25 (GBP) |
Funding ID | E0R00070.CZ00.10 |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2022 |
End | 04/2023 |
Description | Towards Fairwork in Ghana |
Amount | € 519,247 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 81262992 |
Organisation | German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH |
Sector | Public |
Country | Germany |
Start | 11/2020 |
End | 05/2023 |
Description | Unpaid Labour in the Platform Economy |
Amount | £10 (GBP) |
Funding ID | CZD00130 |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2022 |
End | 04/2023 |
Title | Cloudwork principles |
Description | Based on the initial Fairwork principles developed in consultation with stakeholders, the Fairwork project has now developed principles for online remote working platforms ('cloudwork' platforms). These principles are now being applied to prominent cloudworking platforms and will form the basis of a global cloudwork league table in the future. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The first cloudwork league table has not yet been published. |
URL | https://fair.work/en/fw/principles/cloudwork-principles/ |
Title | Cloudwork survey |
Description | In order to score online remote working (cloudwork) platforms according to the Fairwork methodology, we have developed a worker survey tool. The survey can be administered either on- or off-platform, and allows us to collect data from workers about working conditions and experience on the platform in line with the five Fairwork principles, to contribute to the production of Fairwork scores for those platforms. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | We have not yet published the Cloudwork league table. It will be published in April 2021. |
Title | Fair work Principles for AI |
Description | To understand and study the impact of AI (artificial intelligence) on work & employment, and in the workplace, Fairwork team developed a set of principles for fair work. These principles stem from the original Fairwork principles for gigwork and cloudwork, but go further to understand AI's impact in the workplace in broader sense. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The principles were published at a public event hosted by the GPAI network in Tokyo in 2022. Fairwork received great attention to these principles, and we are now in the process of testing how they could be used to evaluate company practices of using algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence for decisions that affect work processes. |
URL | https://fair.work/en/fw/principles/ai/ |
Title | Fairwork Methodology |
Description | We have developed a fairwork methodology to assess fair work conditions in platform economy. The method operationalises the five principles of fairwork (1. Fair Pay, 2. Fair Conditions, 3. Fair Contracts, 4. Fair Management and 5. Fair Representation). These principles were developed through an extensive literature review of published research on job quality, stakeholder meetings at UNCTAD and the ILO in Geneva (involving platform operators, policy makers, trade unions, and academics), and in-country stakeholder meetings held in India (Bangalore and Ahmedabad) and South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg). Each of the five Principles of Fairwork are converted into one basic point and an additional advanced point in the scoring system. The advanced point can only be achieved if the basic point has also been awarded. The framework therefore allows for a maximum of ten points for the Fairwork Score for each platform listed. Where no verifiable evidence is available that meets the threshold, the platform will not be awarded that point. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | As a result of the development of this tool, we are able to assess and compare fair work conditions globally. We are also able to track how fair work conditions improve or worsen over the years, as we update our scores annually. |
URL | https://fair.work/principles/fair-work-scores-methodology/ |
Title | Fairwork South Africa platform scores |
Description | The Fairwork South Africa project has completed two annual 'scoring cycles' of digital labour platforms in South Africa. Through this action research methodology, we have awarded scores out of 10, to the major digital labour platforms operating in South Africa. These scores are based on desk research, interviews with platform workers, and dialogues with platform management. The scores serve as a resource for platforms, workers, consumers and policymakers to identify best and worst labour practices in the platform economy, and by extension, an incentive for platform companies to improve their labour practices. The scores are available on the Fairwork website, and published in two reports (2019, and 2020). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The collation and publication of the Fairwork scores has directly incentivised platform companies in South Africa to implement changes to improve their labour practices. In 2020, Fairwork scored 11 platforms operating in South Africa against the five Fairwork principles, including both global (e.g. Uber, Bolt), and local platforms. As part of this process, six platforms engaged in direct dialogue with Fairwork researchers, with three platforms (NoSweat, SweepSouth and GetTOD) subsequently making changes to align with 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) has actively aligned itself with the Fairwork principles, stating that "NoSweat fully supports the Fairwork Foundation's initiative". In 2019 NoSweat developed a confidential grievance reporting portal, and adopted a contractual requirement for clients to protect workers' health and safety. This contractual requirement is an interactive online form with up to 16 questions that companies working with NoSweat must agree to before hiring NoSweat freelance workers. They cover working hours including how overtime needs to be managed, as well ensuring that freelancers working below a threshold of 45 Rand or less before PAYE ('below-threshold workers') who work more than 5 days a week, are not forced to work more than 8 hours per day. They state that workers must have an hour's break after 5 hours of work, and that 'below-threshold' workers are paid overtime at a rate of 1.5, or double on Sundays, and ensure employers are protected from injury or disease in their workplaces. 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". In 2020, NoSweat publicly stated that they observe the right to free association and accept collective worker representation. • South African domestic work platform SweepSouth, which provides work for approximately 3,000 cleaners in Cape Town and Johannesburg. SweepSouth had been in touch with Fairwork when their score was lower than they hoped for. Following guidance from the Fairwork team, it was clear that in order to achieve a higher score, they needed to commit to meeting Fairwork principle 4.2, which includes whether: 'It [the platform] has a policy which guarantees that the platform will not discriminate against persons on the grounds of race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion or belief, age or any other status which is protected against discrimination in local law'. Following discussions with the the Fairwork team, SweepSouth committed in 2020 to develop a formal policy of non-discrimination against workers. 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 2020 to align with Fairwork principles by committing 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". They also clarified the disciplinary processes in the contract. |
URL | https://fair.work/en/ratings/south-africa/ |
Description | Fairwork Argentina - CIPPEC |
Organisation | Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) |
Country | Argentina |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Argentina research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Argentina research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in the coming year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Austria - TU Wien |
Organisation | Vienna University of Technology |
Country | Austria |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Austria research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Austria research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Bangladesh - iSocial |
Organisation | Infolady Social Enterprise Ltd (iSocial) |
Country | Bangladesh |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Bangladesh research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Bangladesh research |
Impact | No outputs yet |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Belgium - KU Leuven |
Organisation | University of Leuven |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Belgium research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Belgium research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in the coming year |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Fairwork Brazil - Unisinos University |
Organisation | Unisinos University |
Country | Brazil |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Brazil research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Brazil research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Chile - UAI-Chile |
Organisation | Adolfo Ibáñez University |
Country | Chile |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Chile research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Chile research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in March/April 2021 |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Colombia - University of Rosario |
Organisation | Del Rosario University |
Country | Colombia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Colombia research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Colombia research |
Impact | Report to be published in coming year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Ecuador - FLACSO Ecuador |
Organisation | Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales |
Country | Argentina |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Ecuador research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Ecuador research |
Impact | Report to be published in March/April 2021 |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Egypt - American University of Cairo |
Organisation | American University in Cairo |
Country | Egypt |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Egypt research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Egypt research |
Impact | Report will be published in the next year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Ghana - University of Ghana Business School |
Organisation | University of Ghana |
Country | Ghana |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Ghana research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Ghana research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Fairwork Hong Kong - Chinese University of Hong Kong |
Organisation | Chinese University of Hong Kong |
Country | Hong Kong |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Hong Kong research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Hong Kong research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Indonesia - Universitas Gadjah Mada |
Organisation | Gadjah Mada University |
Country | Indonesia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Indonesia research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Indonesia research |
Impact | Report will be published in the next year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Indonesia - Universitas Gadjah Mada |
Organisation | Gadjah Mada University |
Country | Indonesia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Indonesia research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Indonesia research |
Impact | Report will be published in the next year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Kenya - Qhala |
Organisation | Qhala |
Country | Kenya |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Kenya research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Kenya research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Fairwork Pakistan - Centre for Labour Research |
Organisation | Centre for Labour Research |
Country | Pakistan |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Pakistan research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Pakistan research |
Impact | No outputs yet |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork Philippines - De La Salle University |
Organisation | De La Salle University |
Country | Philippines |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Philippines research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Philippines research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Fairwork Serbia - Public Policy Research Centre |
Organisation | Public Policy Research Centre |
Country | India |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork Serbia research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork Serbia research |
Impact | Report will be released in the coming year |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Fairwork USA - U. California-Hastings |
Organisation | University of California Hastings College of the Law |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork USA research |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork USA research |
Impact | Report forthcoming in coming year |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | IIIT Bangalore |
Organisation | International Institute of Information Technology |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Fairwork India research partner |
Collaborator Contribution | IIITB is carrying out Fairwork research and scoring in India |
Impact | Fairwork India scores, 2019 and 2020. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Tech U Berlin |
Organisation | Technical University Berlin |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support with Fairwork research in Germany |
Collaborator Contribution | Fairwork research in Germany |
Impact | Fairwork Germany reports, 2019, 2020 |
Start Year | 2019 |
Title | Fairwork logo |
Description | At the moment, we are in the process of trademarking our Fairwork logo in order to protect the intellectual property of our project. |
IP Reference | |
Protection | Trade Mark |
Year Protection Granted | |
Licensed | No |
Impact | As a result of trademarking our logo, we will be able to work towards developing our certification scheme. Once our logo is protected, we will be able to ensure that it is not copied, distributed or disseminated without consent and only certified platforms can use our logo. This will also ensure that across our publications, only verified fairwork publications will be able to carry our logo. |
Description | 2021 World Day of Social Justice/Launch of ILO WESO report |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Dr Kelle Howson appeared on a panel during an event co-hosted by the International Labour Organisation, and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan to the United Nations. The event was to mark the launch of the ILO WESO report as well as the world day of social justice. Kelle answered questions about how Fairwork findings can contribute to global policy dialogues. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | A Living Wage for South African Platform Workers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blog about establishing living wage for South African Platform workers |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://fair.work/a-living-wage-for-south-african-platform-workers/ |
Description | BBC Newshour Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | BBC Newshour interview - Dr Kelle Howson - on potential impacts of UK Supreme Court ruling against Uber, on other sectors of the gig economy and other countries |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172x2z6d459wh2 |
Description | Business Live opinion editorial |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 22 July 2021, Pitso Tsibolane, opinion editorial, Business Live: "Gig workers need their fair share"; public outreach of Fairwork research and insights, consumer advocacy around working conditions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2021-07-22-gig-workers-need-their-fair-share/ |
Description | Cape Talk interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Kelle Howson gave radio interview folloing launch of Fairwork South Africa 2020 report - to publicise findings, and discuss the impact of COVID-19 on gig workers |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.capetalk.co.za/podcasts/127/lunch-with-pippa-hudson/299186/impact-of-covid-19-of-the-gig... |
Description | Countermovements Conference Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation/talk to "Countermovements" talk series organised by Die Wiener Volkschochshulen, entitled "The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work in a global context" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny50hIRthG0&t=3782s |
Description | Darcy Du Toit and Kelle Howson - African Labour Law Society Conference 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 28 October 2021, Kelle Howson and Darcy du Toit presented a paper entitled "Protecting platform workers: Options and Challenges" to an audience of labour lawyers, academics and industry across Africa. Paper has subsequently been accepted for publication in the South African 'Industrial Law Journal'. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Digitalisation and the World of Work(ers) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Professor Darcy du Toit participated in this webinar hosted by the University of the Witswatersrand on 5 November 2020 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Fair Work for Platform Workers: New Directions' at the 'Employment Status in the Gig Economy: Courts and Legislation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | S. Fredman: 'Fair Work for Platform Workers: New Directions' at the 'Employment Status in the Gig Economy: Courts and Legislation' (University of Bristol Centre for Law at Work Exploratory Workshop Friday 5th April 2019) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Goodbye Clickworker - Hello Robot? The Future of Work |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Mungai, P. "Goodbye Clickworker - Hello Robot? The Future of Work", re:publica: The Most Inspiring Festival for the DIGITAL SOCIETY in Accra, Ghana. (14-15 December 2018) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | House of Lords oral evidence |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Dr Kelle Howson served as an expert witness for a meeting of the UK House of Lords COVID-9 committee, to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future of work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/media-centre/house-of-lords-media-notices/2021/january-2021... |
Description | IFIP JWC Conference on "Future of Digital Work" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Professor Richard Heeks presented two papers at the IFIP JWC conference, entitled 'Differentiators of decent work in the gig economy'; and 'In/formalisation or employment and the gig economy in the global South' on 11 December 2020 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Kelle Howson conference presentation - Centrow CoLab Conference: Platform Work and Inclusion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 2 March 2022, Kelle Howson presentation of paper entitled "Swept Under the Rug: Continuity and change in South African domestic labour relations under the digital labour platform regime" at a conference hosted by Centrow, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, titled: "Centrow CoLab conference: Platform Work and Inclusion - Ensuring Decent Work and Basic Rights". This drew on data from Fairwork South Africa research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Kelle Howson conference presentation - Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kelle Howson and Fabian Ferrari presented a paper including data gathered as part of this award, entitled: "Extreme Outsourcing and Extreme Control: Governing the Digital Value Network", which went on to be published in Global Networks at the end of 2021. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Kelle Howson seminar - Fairwork: Exposing the worst and best of the global gig economy - Southern Centre for Inequality Studies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Kelle Howson presentation 18 August 2021 in Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg) seminar series, entitled "Fairwork: Exposing the worst and best of the global gig economy," drawing on key insights from Fairwork South Africa research, followed by questions and discussion. Facilitated network and relationship building with key South African research institute. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Labour geography working group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dr Kelle Howson gave a keynote presentation to a European working group of labour geographers, entitled 'Essential yet expendable, the heightened risks of gig work in the pandemic.' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Mail and Guardian opinion editorial |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 09/Jul/21 Louise Bezuidenhout Mail and Guardian opinion editorial: "Choose platforms that support their gig economy workers survive during a pandemic" - discussing Fairwork South Africa research and advocating consumer awareness of working conditions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://mg.co.za/opinion/2021-07-09-choose-platforms-that-support-their-gig-economy-workers-survive-... |
Description | Mindeststandards für faire Platformarbeit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Introduction of standards for platform employment in German, published on our website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://fair.work/mindeststandards-fur-faire-plattformarbeit/ |
Description | NEDLAC Organised Labour School |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professor Darcy du Toit gave a presentation to the NEDLAC Organised Labour School, entitled 'The extension of labour law to informal and platform workers', on 1 February 2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | New Scores for South Africa Released! |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We have announced the publication of South Africa Scores in a blog on our website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://fair.work/new-scores-for-south-africa-released/ |
Description | New rating system highlights best and worst digital platforms for workers' conditions |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blog about our principles and methodology for assessing fair work in platform work, published on our project website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://fair.work/new-rating-system-highlights-best-and-worst-digital-platforms-for-workers-conditio... |
Description | One small step towards decent work for Uber workers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We have published a blog explaining the recent changes for Uber workers as a result of Uber v Aslam case decided in December 2018, at the UK Court of Appeal. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://fair.work/one-small-step-towards-decent-work-for-uber-workers/ |
Description | Opinion Editorial - Fin 24 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 20/Sep/21, Pitso Tsibolane, Opinion Editorial, "Exploiting gig workers will only make SA's jobs crisis worse", public outreach and consumer advocacy based on Fairwork research on gig economy working conditions in South Africa |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.news24.com/fin24/opinion/opinion-exploiting-gig-workers-will-only-make-sas-jobs-crisis-w... |
Description | Opinion editorial Cape Argus |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 16/Sep/21, Louise Bezuidenhout, Opinion Editorial, Cape Argus, "Role of ethics in gig economy raises questions" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/cape-argus/20210916/282179359213973 |
Description | Pitso Tsibolane panel discussion - |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Social Justice in the Digital Economy: Summer Webinar Series, 8 June 2021, 'Equitable Digital Economies' panel. Discussion informed by Fairwork South Africa research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://not-equal.tech/equitable-digital-economies/ |
Description | Platform policies: The growth of indecent work in SA |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Newspaper article in a major South African daily about platform policies in South Africa. This article was also re-published by MSN Money afterwards on 6 March 2020https://www.msn.com/en-za/money/personalfinance/platform-policies-the-growth-of-indecent-work-in-sa/ar-BB10N8nl?li=BBqfZdL&ocid=wispr |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-05-platform-policies-the-growth-of-indecent-work-in-... |
Description | SASLAW panel discussion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Profs Darcy Du Toit and Sandra Fredman unveiled Fairwork's 'Code of Good Practice for the Regulation of Platform Work in South Africa' at the South African Society for Labour Law conference in 2020, during a panel discussion entitled 'Thinking out of the Box: Regulating Fairwork for Platform Workers in Law and Practice'. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.saslaw.org.za/index.php/conference-programme |
Description | Sandy Fredman Keynote - Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law - 2021 Cape Town Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | "Keynote: Gender discrimination in the Gig Economy" - to an audience of expert anti-discrimination law academics and practitioners, drawing on key insights from Fairwork research in South Africa. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | South Africa Stakeholder Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | We hosted a two-day workshop for the Fairwork project in November 2019 in South Africa, bringing together platforms, workers and policy makers. These meetings were held to discuss Fairwork's ongoing work in South Africa. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | South Africa in the Digital Age project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Participation by Kelle Howson in workshop hosted by Mandela Institute and Genesis Analytics to provide recommendations to the South Africa in the Digital Age (SADA) project, part of the Public Private Growth Initiative between the private sector and the Presidency. The purpose of the workshop was to identify priority regulation areas on the topic of digital economy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | The 1st International Convention of App-Based Transport Workers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This event was the first International Convention of App-Based Transport Workers. Drivers were invited from 23 countries, spanning 6 different continents bringing in existing networks & unions represented countries include Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, France, Nigeria & Australia. We have engaged with the drivers and presented our ongoing work in platform economy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | http://iaatw.org/ |
Description | The Fairwork Foundation: #LabourBehindTheApp |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Graham, M. "The Fairwork Foundation: #LabourBehindTheApp" Platform Coops Unplugged Conference, organised by Platform Cooperativism Consortium (8 November 2019) As a result of our engagement at the Conference, we have received several invitations to present our work and we have also received expression of interest for partnerships. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | The Fairwork Foundation: Ensuring fairness in the gig economy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | "The Fairwork Foundation: Ensuring fairness in the gig economy" Mozfest (26 October 2019) Workshop and Talk at Mozfest London in 2019, introducing fairwork principles and inviting the audience to debate them. The event sparked wide interest in the topic of fair work in platform economy and we received several invitations to present our work afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Howson, K. "The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work" Digital Kontrovers Conference, Berlin, Germany.(9 December 2019) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Katta, S. "The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work" IDES: Intercultural Digital Ethics Symposium, Oxford, the UK (10 December 2019) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation of our ongoing work at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Germany. Katta, S. "The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for improving platform work". Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) (20 January 2020) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Thompson Reuters Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Kelle Howson gave and interview to journalists from Thompson Reuters writing an article on Uber Eats' labour practices in South Africa |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | UK ethical consumer week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Prof Richard Heeks gave a presentation at the UK Ethical Consumer Week, entitled: The Fairwork Foundation: Fair work in the gig economy |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.ethicalconsumerweek.com/programme |
Description | Uber and Deliveroo's 'charter of good work' is nothing but fairwashing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | We have published a newspaper article on OpenDemocracy responding to the recent charter of Good Work, undersigned by major platforms at the World Economic Forum. Our response gathered wide reaction, and our piece was re-published several times by other outlets, including a translated version in Portuguese published by a major daily in Brazil. See some examples below: 1. Published in OII blog https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/uber-and-deliveroos-charter-of-good-work-is-nothing-but-fairwashing/ 3 February 2020 2. Re-published by Brave New Europe https://braveneweurope.com/srujana-katta-kelle-howson-funda-ustek-spilda-mark-graham-uber-and-deliveroos-charter-of-good-work-is-nothing-but-fairwashing 3 February 2020 3. Also re-published in CartaCapital (Portugese) https://politike.cartacapital.com.br/o-lobo-cuida-do-galinheiro/ 17 February 2020 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/uber-and-deliveroos-charter-of-good-work-is-nothing-but-... |
Description | Why you should start talking to your Uber driver |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Newspaper article published in a major South African daily about the working conditions of platform workers in South Africa |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-01-why-you-should-start-talking-to-your-uber-driver/ |
Description | eNCA television news interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Kelle Howson appeared on South Africa's eNCA evening news to give a live interview concerning the impact of COVID-19 on gig workers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://twitter.com/eNCA/status/1240326496398516226 |