The sixth annual Fairwork India report highlights the growing influence of platform companies over workers’ schedules and service durations, and examines the potential effects of proposed legislation for platform workers in Karnataka and Jharkhand.
Titled “Fairwork India Ratings 2024: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy,” the report was authored by researchers from the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP) at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. It assesses working conditions across 11 platforms in India, covering location-based services in sectors like domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery, and transportation.
Key Findings:
This year’s Fairwork India report evaluated 11 platforms: Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Ola, Porter, Swiggy, Uber, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato. Each platform was rated out of 10 based on the Fairwork Principles: fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.
The ratings were determined through a mix of desk research, worker interviews conducted in cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram, and evidence provided by the platforms where available.
Notably, no platform scored more than six out of a possible ten points.
Below are the key findings for each Fairwork principle:
Fair Pay: Only bigbasket and Urban Company could demonstrate a minimum wage policy that ensures all workers earn at least the local hourly minimum wage after accounting for work-related costs. However, no platform could provide evidence that all workers earn a living wage, so no platform earned the second point for Fair Pay.
Fair Conditions: Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato showed that they provide adequate safety equipment and regular safety training. bigbasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato also provide accident insurance, income compensation in cases of medical inability to work (other than accidents), and assurance that workers’ standing isn’t impacted when they return after an approved break. These platforms earned a second point for Fair Conditions.
Fair Contracts: Six platforms—bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato—were awarded a point for ensuring contracts are accessible, understandable, and include protections for worker data. Additionally, bigbasket, BluSmart, Swiggy, Zepto, and Zomato incorporated provisions for compensating workers for app malfunctions and adhered to a Code of Conduct for subcontractors. They also made pricing transparent in cases of dynamic pricing.
Fair Management: Amazon Flex, bigbasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato were awarded a point for having due processes for decisions affecting workers and channels to appeal disciplinary actions. BluSmart, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato also conducted regular external audits to check for biases in work allocation systems and enforced policies against discrimination.
Fair Representation: Collective representation remains a crucial aspect of fairness in the workplace. Unfortunately, despite increasing platform worker collectivization in India over the past six years, no platform provided sufficient evidence of recognizing a collective workers’ body. As a result, no points were awarded for this principle.
- Press release
