The UK’s most popular digital labour platforms have been rated by Oxford researchers through fair principles on the treatment of their workers.

Standards Scored

In the ‘Fairwork Uk Ratings 2021: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy’ company standards are scored based on pay, conditions, management, and representation.

Co-author of the Oxford Report, Dr Alessio Bertolini said ‘For the first time we have looked at companies offering taxi services, food delivery, and courier and domestic services to rate them on how they treat their employees.’

The E-Cargo company, Pedal Me received the highest ranking with a score of 8/10.

‘We found Pedal Me the highest-scoring platform as it offers all its workers an employment contract, entitling them to many employment rights from which UK platform workers are typically excluded’ said Dr. Bertolini.

The new study found that a large fraction of the other companies rated failed to ensure minimum standards of fair work, for instance allowing workers to earn below minimum wage.

Digital platforms like Bolt, Ola, and Amazon Flex all failed to meet basic standards of fairness when against Fairwork principles.

Benjamin Knowles, Rider and CEO, Pedal Me said ‘Logistics work requires hard work, resilience, and attention to detail, it is important to us that we treat our staff fairly, with dignity and kindness for all the hard work they do.’

Key Findings of Platforms

In the report, only 2 of the 11 platforms demonstrated a guarantee to employees to be paid minimum wage after costs.

‘We found most platform companies do not guarantee that their workers earn a minimum wage, this is most often due to the significant amount of unpaid waiting time workers experience when working.’ said Co-author Dr Matthew Cole.

When rating fair conditions, 6 of the platforms provided sufficient protection from task-related risks in the working environment.

5 of the companies, showed evidence of fair, clear, and accessible contracts or terms of service, while only 4 had a formalised process of workers appealing a decision.

Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, TUC said, ‘These platforms are using new technologies to carry out the age-old practice of worker exploitation. But the gig economy’s exploitative model is nearing the end of the road.’

‘Unions won’t rest until pay and conditions have improved for gig workers, Ministers must stop letting gig economy platforms off the hook, boost workers’ rights and end the scourge of insecure work.’

Pedal Me was the only platform to show fair representation by committing to initiating a process that allowed workers to share their collective views with management.

‘We’ve steered away from gig economy models designed to evade tax and employer responsibility.’ said Knowles
‘I’m excited to see us being recognised for our work in this area, and comparisons being drawn with our less honourable competitors.’

Fairwork Pledge

From these findings, the researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute, are calling for stronger protections for UK gig workers, and robust labour standards on the UK platform economy.

Professor Mark Graham, Professor of Internet Geography at Oxford Internet Institute and Director of Fairwork, said ‘We’re setting out a pathway to realise that ambition and one of the ways we’re doing that, in addition to calling for tougher regulation, is through the launch of the Fairwork Pledge.’

The Fairwork Pledge is to highlight Fairwork’s commitment to making platforms accountable for their practices.
The aim of the pledge is to encourage organisations to support best labour practices, influenced by the five principles of Fairwork.

Organisations then have the option to sign up to the pledge as an official Fairwork Supporter or Fairwork Partner.

A Supporter differs from the partner as they must demonstrate their support for improved platform work publicly and provide their staff with appropriate resources to make informed decisions.

A Fairwork Partner involves making a public commitment to implement changes in their own employment practices.

“The low scores of many popular platforms in the Fairwork UK league table clearly demonstrates the need for regulatory intervention to ensure gig workers are no longer falling through the cracks, exacerbated through the pandemic.’ ended Prof. Graham.