Abstract

Growth of gig work – short-term tasks organized and mediated by digital labor platforms such as Uber and Upwork – is the focus for an increasing body of research. Yet there has been a lack of systematic frameworks that could evaluate this type of labor against decent work standards, and inform consumers and others about relative adherence to those standards across platforms and sectors. In this article we report the development of the “Fairwork framework”, based on five decent work principles of fair pay, conditions, contracts, management, and representation. The framework and its associated methodology were first field-tested in South Africa and we report on its use to rate seven gig economy platforms. A league table of platforms was widely publicized and one platform was persuaded to improve working conditions. We reflect on the use and content of the framework, and its role in future action research on decent gig work.

摘要

零工工作的增长——由优步和 Upwork 等数字劳动力平台组织和调解的短期任务——是越来越多的研究的重点。然而，一直缺乏系统框架来根据体面劳动标准评估此类劳动，并告知消费者和其他人跨平台和部门对这些标准的相对遵守情况。在本文中，我们报告了“公平工作框架”的发展，该框架基于公平薪酬、条件、合同、管理和代表等五项体面工作原则。该框架及其相关方法首先在南非进行了现场测试，我们报告了其用于对七个零工经济平台进行评级的情况。广泛宣传平台排行榜，并说服一个平台改善工作条件。