Porter, Ola, Uber rank lowest in ‘fair work’ standards in India: Report

Uber, Ola and Porter showed minimum standards of “fair work” when it comes to working conditions of digital platforms, according to the latest Fairwork India 2023 report by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP) at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) with Oxford University.

Intracity logistics platform Porter and ride-hailing aggregator Ola scored zero on a scale of 1-10, while Uber and delivery platform Dunzo scored 1 out of 10. The Fairwork India 2023 report analysed a total of 12 startups, including bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zomato, Zepto, Flipkart, Amazon Flex, Dunzo, Uber, Ola and Porter.

bigbasket, Flipkart, and Urban Company were the only platforms with a minimum wage policy to ensure all their workers earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs.

"No platform made the second point of the Fair Pay principle, which requires platforms to provide sufficient evidence that workers earn at least the local living wage after work-related costs," the report says, adding that Urban Company made a public commitment to ensure its workers earn at least the local living wage after factoring in work-related costs.

In terms of fair conditions, Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Uber, Zepto and Zomato were awarded the first point for providing adequate safety equipment and training to workers.

Only bigbasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato were awarded the second point for providing workers with accident insurance coverage at no additional cost, monetary compensation for income loss in cases where they were unable to work due to medical reasons other than accidents, and for ensuring workers’ standing was not negatively affected when they returned after a break taken with prior notification.

Seven out of 12 platforms were awarded the first point for the fair contracts principle. bigbasket, BluSmart, Dunzo, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato were awarded this point for ensuring the accessibility and comprehensibility of their contracts, and for having a protocol for data protection and management of worker data. bigbasket, BluSmart, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato met the requirements for the second point under fair contracts by adopting a change notification clause in their contracts.

In fair management, Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Zomato were awarded the first point for providing due process in decisions affecting workers, and channels for workers to appeal disciplinary actions. In fair representation via a collective body or trade union, no platform showed willingness to recognise a collective body of workers.

The report highlights that 2023 was a milestone year for platform workers in India: foremost, the Leaders’ Declaration at the 18th G20 summit, held on 9 and 10 September in New Delhi, called for ensuring “adequate social protection and decent working conditions for gig and platform workers.”

Also, the passage of The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023, called for the establishment of a platform-based gig workers’ Welfare Board to oversee the mandatory registration of all digital intermediaries (platforms) operating in the state, all platform workers working for them, and every transaction that takes place on the platforms. The board will charge a fee for each transaction to fund welfare provision for platform workers. Similarly, Karnataka announced the provision of accident and health insurance to all platform workers in the state.

Fairwork evaluates and ranks the working conditions of digital platforms. Its ratings are based on five principles -- fair play, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.