Digital Bosses: The Role of Algorithms in the Modern Workplace

The nature of platform work is largely contractual task based. These contracts do not usually contain details about working conditions and neither do companies like Swiggy or Zomato explain the terms of the contracts to the workers, the report notes. It is also difficult for workers to access their contracts.

Benefits like health and accident insurance not widely offered to workers on gig-working platforms. If offered health, they lack uniformity. The report notes that according to Swiggy’s Initial Public Offering prospectus, it offers workers accident, hospitalisation, illness and maternity cover; on demand ambulances, paid recovery time off and mobile insurance. But Swiggy workers in Belgaum noted that the company categorises its workers into tiers: gold, silver and bronze. Workers in higher tiers can avail of all facilities while those in lower tiers are only offered some.

An April 2024 report from Rest of World stated that these tiers are determined by a point system, wherein workers need to earn 70 points per week to be in the gold tier, 50-70 points for the silver tier, and those falling short of 50 points were considered to be in the bronze tier.

Algorithmic management fail to account for the workers’ real working conditions which are often messy and unpredictable. In many cases, the algorithm may allot ‘peak work time hours’ in which workers are not allowed breaks. Demarcations such as this can have dangerous repercussions on the health of workers, especially during extreme weather conditions.

The report found that termination of workers from their work is also often automated. Workers’ accounts on the platform are deactivated without notification and their IDs are blocked either temporarily or permanently. This is also used as a disciplinary model and affects workers’ earnings. Automatic deactivation also means workers remain uninformed about the reasons behind their termination.

Algorithmic determination of wages ensures that workers are unaware about how their earnings are calculated. While calculations are said to be based on multiple factors like day of the week, time of day, distance, individual behaviour and surge pricing, the weight of each component keeps changing. The fluctuating formula means workers are unable to predict their earnings and plan for the future.

A majority of cab drivers and food delivery workers in India worked over 12 hours a day, the report notes. The Factories Act, 1948 caps the number of working hours to eight per day over which workers are entitled to overtime pay. However, since its application to gig workers is contested, algorithmic interventions on platforms result in workers regularly working more than eight hours a day. One of the ways this happens in the case of Zomato and Swiggy workers is their inability to cancel orders on the platform without being penalised. This forces them to complete orders beyond their predetermined working hours.

Programmed with an anti-union bias, algorithms are also known to restrict workers from conversing with each other. Platforms use tracking systems to surveil and identifying workers who are likely to organise or form a union. While the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, lists a range of unfair labour practices, it does not list surveillance of workers as one highlighting a major gap in legislation.

Focus and Factoids by Shivansh Singh.