Fairwork India Ratings 2024: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy

Of the 11 companies under study, bigbasket, Swiggy, Urban Company and Zomato scored six out of 10 points. The were followed by Blusmart (five out of 10), Zepto (four out of 10), Amazon Flex (two out of 10) and Flipkart (one out of 10). Ola, Porter and Uber were awarded no points.

Only bigbasket and Urban Company received the first point for Fair Pay as they had a minimum wage policy which guaranteed workers an hourly local minimum wage, however no company of the 11 under review committed to paying a local living wage and thus lost out on the points awarded under this category.

Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato provided adequate safety equipment and training to their workers thus earning the first Fair Conditions point. However, only bigbasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato earned the second point for offering accident insurance, income compensation for medical absences, and protecting workers' standing after approved breaks.

bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato were awarded their first Fair Contracts point for by making sure their contracts were accessible and comprehensible. All of these except Urban Company earned the second point for adding a change notification clause in their contracts, reducing liabilities and compensation losses for workers, adopting a Code of Conduct for subcontractors, and being transparent about how dynamic pricing worked.

Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato received the first Fair Management point for having appeal channels for workers, while BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company and Zomato also earned the second point by conducting external audits for bias and implementing anti-discrimination policies.

Due to inadequate evidence of the platforms’ willingness to recognise collective bodies/trade unions of workers, no company was awarded a score for Fair Representation.

Starting 2022, a new system of allocating work on such platforms required workers to book and commit to fixed work slots, the report notes. This greatly reduces the flexibility aspect of gig work and workers risk demotion to lower paying slots and severe penalties if they are unable to commit time slots in advance.

Interviews with workers, excerpts of which are carried in the report, help explain issues with such corporate platforms. An Ola worker from Chennai highlighted the impossibility of establishing a taxi stand or service outside of corporate platforms due to the public’s dying trust. He also talks about the impersonality of AI complaint redressal systems which have deterred him from lodging his grievances with the platform.

Another worker, from Swiggy, brought out the difficulty of sustaining a family as work-related costs such as fuel increased but platform fees and take home earnings did not changed significantly, forcing him to work 14 hour days

Focus and Factoids by Punya Sethi.