Systematic evaluation of gig work against decent work standards: The development and application of the Fairwork framework

Heeks, Richard; Graham, Mark; Mungai, Paul; Belle, Jean-Paul Van; Woodcock, Jamie

doi:10.1080/01972243.2021.1942356

Cited by 44 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…While what qualifies as decent or good quality work can vary between and among different workers, stakeholders and policy-makers, most standards (from the ILO to OECD and Eurofound) involve six key dimensions of job quality: pay and other rewards; intrinsic characteristics of work; terms of employment; health and safety; work-life balance; and representation and voice (Warhurst et al, 2017). In this regard, we begin from the baseline standards of decent work developed by the Fairwork Project, which include fair wages, conditions, contracts, management and representation (Heeks et al, 2021). These principles have evolved over years of action-research and broadly align with the widerange of job-quality metrics in contemporary academic research.…”

Section: Proliferating Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics by Automatic Means? A Critique of Artificial Intelligence Ethics at Work

Cole

Cant²,

Spilda³

et al. 2022

Front. Artif. Intell.

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Calls for “ethical Artificial Intelligence” are legion, with a recent proliferation of government and industry guidelines attempting to establish ethical rules and boundaries for this new technology. With few exceptions, they interpret Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics narrowly in a liberal political framework of privacy concerns, transparency, governance and non-discrimination. One of the main hurdles to establishing “ethical AI” remains how to operationalize high-level principles such that they translate to technology design, development and use in the labor process. This is because organizations can end up interpreting ethics in an ad-hoc way with no oversight, treating ethics as simply another technological problem with technological solutions, and regulations have been largely detached from the issues AI presents for workers. There is a distinct lack of supra-national standards for fair, decent, or just AI in contexts where people depend on and work in tandem with it. Topics such as discrimination and bias in job allocation, surveillance and control in the labor process, and quantification of work have received significant attention, yet questions around AI and job quality and working conditions have not. This has left workers exposed to potential risks and harms of AI. In this paper, we provide a critique of relevant academic literature and policies related to AI ethics. We then identify a set of principles that could facilitate fairer working conditions with AI. As part of a broader research initiative with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, we propose a set of accountability mechanisms to ensure AI systems foster fairer working conditions. Such processes are aimed at reshaping the social impact of technology from the point of inception to set a research agenda for the future. As such, the key contribution of the paper is how to bridge from abstract ethical principles to operationalizable processes in the vast field of AI and new technology at work.

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Section: Proliferating Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics by Automatic Means? A Critique of Artificial Intelligence Ethics at Work

Cole

Cant²,

Spilda³

et al. 2022

Front. Artif. Intell.

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“…Platform workers can be categorized into two main groups: web‐based (services performed remotely via the Internet) and location‐based (work in a specific geographical area) 21 . In our study, we were concerned with platform workers' interactions with the public and so focused on location‐based workers; specifically, those who delivered people, food, or packages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of platform workers find that, although platforms emphasize the flexibility of workers to choose when they work, this characterization underplays the active role that digital platform companies play in standardizing services and monitoring workers 15 . Working times are mostly dictated by consumer demand and platform incentive payments and work is managed by the platform company to a significant degree 21 . In 2021, the European Commission 7 proposed a directive on improving working conditions in platform work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived COVID‐19 health and job risks faced by digital platform drivers and measures in place to protect them: A qualitative study

MacEachen

Meyer

Majowicz

et al. 2022

American J Industrial Med

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Introduction: As they deliver food, packages, and people across cities, digital platform drivers (gig workers) are in a key position to become infected with COVID-19 and transmit it to many others. The aim of this study is to identify perceived COVID-19 exposure and job risks faced by workers and document the measures in place to protect their health, and how workers responded to these measures. Methods: In 2020-2021, in-depth interviews were conducted in Ontario, Canada, with 33 digital platform drivers and managers across nine platforms that delivered food, packages, or people. Interviews focused on perceived COVID-19 risks and mitigation strategies. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and uploaded to NVivo software for coding by varied dual pairs of researchers. A Stakeholder Advisory Committee played an instrumental role in the study. Results: As self-employed workers were without the protection of employment and occupational health standards, platform workers absorbed most of the occupational risks related to COVID-19. Despite safety measures (e.g., contactless delivery) and financial support for COVID-19 illnesses introduced by platform companies, perceived COVID-19 risks remained high because of platform-related work pressures, including rating systems. We identify five key COVID-19 related risks faced by the digital platform drivers. Conclusion: We situate platform drivers within the broad context of precarious employment and recommend organizational-and government-level interventions to prevent digital platform worker COVID-19 risks and to assist workers ill with COVID-19. Measures to protect the health of platform workers would benefit public health aims by reducing transmission by drivers to families, customers, and consequently, the greater population.

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“…Authors such as Anwar and Graham (2021) and Hunt et al (2019) are among those that have expressed concerns about labor rights issues on digital platforms. The labor laws in most SSA countries do not cover digital platform work; therefore, digital labor workers are not adequately protected by labor laws (Heeks et al, 2021). The right labor laws will ensure that all stakeholders in digital platform work (customer, service provider, and platform organization) derive business value while the abuse of control by the digital platform organizations is prevented (Grove & Breytenbach, 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Affordances of digital platforms insub‐SaharanAfrica: An analytical review

Daramola

Etim

2022

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

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The proliferation of digital platforms in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) has increased job opportunities for informal businesses. However, the technological affordance of digital platforms in SSA has received very little attention in literature review. This paper presents an analytical review of the technological affordances of digital platforms in SSA. We adopted a systematic literature review methodology that entailed gathering evidence from relevant literature and digital platforms in three countries in SSA (South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya). Three research questions focusing on (i) critical issues of discussion on digital platforms in SSA and their distribution; (ii) understanding the technological affordances of digital platforms in SSA; and (iii) assessing the extent to which the technological affordances digital platforms can address the challenges of the informal sector in SSA drove the investigation. The study developed an affordances criteria framework, the first of its kind, to evaluate digital platforms affordances in SSA. Our findings revealed the key topics that have gained researchers' attention so far and digital platforms distribution in SSA. We also found that most digital platforms in SSA currently lack affordances that support multimodal interface and native language contents, limiting their accessibility to persons with minimal digital literacy. Most platforms also lack support for public/private partnerships. The lack of critical affordances that match the profile of the informal sector in SSA makes existing digital platforms incapable of addressing many critical challenges of the informal sector. These challenges include low literacy levels, minimal/lack of government support, lack of electricity or expensive power supply, expensive internet connectivity, and health and safety issues. However, existing digital platforms can reasonably address the absence of social protection, lack of formalization, and poor operational infrastructure. As a contribution, this paper offers a new perspective on the technological affordances of digital platforms in SSA. It also provides insight into the imperatives for designing inclusive and accessible digital platforms for the informal sector in SSA.

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Systematic evaluation of gig work against decent work standards: The development and application of the Fairwork framework

Cited by 44 publications

References 25 publications

Politics by Automatic Means? A Critique of Artificial Intelligence Ethics at Work

Politics by Automatic Means? A Critique of Artificial Intelligence Ethics at Work

Perceived COVID‐19 health and job risks faced by digital platform drivers and measures in place to protect them: A qualitative study

Affordances of digital platforms insub‐SaharanAfrica: An analytical review

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