GCRF Decent Work: FAIRWORK in the Platform Economy in the Global South

GCRF 体面劳动：南半球平台经济中的公平工作

• 批准号: ES/S00081X/1
• 负责人: Mark Graham
• 金额: $ 87.73万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FS00081X%2F1
• 关键词: GCRF; Decent; Work; FAIRWORK; Platform

There are millions of platform workers who live all over the world, doing work that is outsourced or organised via digital platforms or apps in the gig economy. This work can include jobs as varied as taxi driving using Uber, translation on Upwork, or the training of machine learning algorithms through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Despite the potential of such work to give jobs to those who need them, platform workers have little ability to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers, who are often on the other side of the world. Our previous research has shown that platforms often operate in relatively unregulated ways, and can encourage a race to the bottom in terms of workers' ability to defend existing jobs, liveable wages, and dignified working conditions. The potentials and risks of platform work touch down starkly in South Africa. A country that, by some measures, has the world's highest income inequality, and 28% unemployment rates. At the same time, the country has relatively well-developed internet infrastructure, and a relatively stable political climate and state/legal institutions. These factors make the country a site in which the platform economy is nascent enough to allow us to co-develop solutions with a multi-disciplinary team from Law and the Social Sciences that will offer tangible opportunities to influence policy and practice surrounding digital work. As other middle- and low-income countries quickly develop their internet infrastructures and millions of more potential digital workers rush online in search of opportunities, the interventions that this project proposes will be of crucial need if we are to avoid some of the 'race to the bottom' that the current world of digital work is bringing into being. Our project will culminate in two key initiatives. First, building on a work package of legal research, a Code of Practice will be developed to serve as an interpretive tool to outline the ways that existing regulations can be made applicable to platform workers. Second, we will develop a 'Fairwork Foundation.' Much like the Fairtrade Foundation has been able to certify the production chains of commodities like coffee or chocolate, the Fairwork Foundation will certify the production networks of the platform economy, and therefore harness consumer power to significantly contribute to the welfare and job quality of digital workers. This programme of work aims to not just uncover where fair and unfair work takes place, but also seeks to codify that knowledge into both a 'Fairwork certification scheme' and an annual ranking of platforms. These two initiatives will ultimately allow for the development of an international standard for good-quality digital working conditions.These objectives will be achieved with 5 project stages. First, the Law team will analyse S. African labour laws, social security laws, and other legal and policy regulations relating to the platform economy, and ask how those laws might be adapted to provide decent work standards for digital platform workers. At the same time, the Social Science team will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to map the key issues faced by S. African platform workers: developing a rich understanding of how platform work may be failing to live up to decent work standards. Third, we develop meaningful decent work standards for platform work that happens outside of the Global North. Fourth, we take those standards and use them in a process of action research in which we seek to certify the digital work platforms: assigning them a Fairwork certification if they pass. Finally, through an extended process of stakeholder engagement and outreach with workers, platforms, and policy makers, we plan a short-term strategy of pressuring platforms to change their policies to improve working conditions and a longer-term strategy of influencing the direction that regulation takes in a currently highly unregulated sector.

在零工经济中，有数百万平台工人生活在世界各地，从事通过数字平台或应用程序外包或组织的工作。这项工作可以包括各种各样的工作，比如使用优步开出租车，在Upwork上翻译，或者通过亚马逊的机械土耳其人培训机器学习算法。尽管这类工作有可能为需要它们的人提供工作机会，但平台工人几乎没有能力与雇主谈判工资和工作条件，而雇主往往在世界的另一边。我们之前的研究表明，平台通常以相对不受监管的方式运营，可能会鼓励工人在捍卫现有工作、可维持生计的工资和有尊严的工作条件方面的能力竞相下降。平台工作的潜力和风险在南非触目惊心。按某些标准衡量，这个国家的收入不平等程度是世界上最高的，失业率为28%。与此同时，中国拥有相对发达的互联网基础设施，以及相对稳定的政治气候和国家/法律机构。这些因素使这个国家成为平台经济刚刚起步的地方，使我们能够与来自法律和社会科学的多学科团队共同开发解决方案，这些解决方案将提供切实的机会，影响围绕数字工作的政策和实践。随着其他中低收入国家迅速发展其互联网基础设施，数以百万计的潜在数字工作者争先恐后地在线寻找机会，如果我们要避免当前数字工作世界正在形成的一些“逐底竞赛”，该项目提出的干预措施将是至关重要的。我们的项目将在两个关键举措中达到顶峰。首先，在法律研究工作包的基础上，将制定一份业务守则，作为一种解释性工具，概述如何使现有条例适用于平台工人。第二，我们将建立一个“公平工作基金会”。就像公平贸易基金会能够认证咖啡或巧克力等大宗商品的生产链一样，公平工作基金会将认证平台型经济的生产网络，从而利用消费者的力量为数字工人的福利和工作质量做出重大贡献。这项工作计划的目的不仅是揭露哪里发生了公平和不公平的工作，而且还试图将这一知识编纂成“公平工作认证计划”和平台年度排名。这两项举措最终将有助于制定高质量数字工作条件的国际标准。这些目标将通过5个项目阶段来实现。首先，法律小组将分析南非劳动法、社会保障法以及其他与平台经济有关的法律和政策法规，并询问如何调整这些法律，为数字平台工人提供体面的工作标准。与此同时，社会科学团队将使用定性和定量相结合的方法来绘制南非平台工作人员面临的关键问题：对平台工作如何可能达不到体面工作标准产生丰富的理解。第三，我们为全球北部以外的平台工作制定了有意义的体面工作标准。第四，我们采用这些标准，并在行动研究过程中使用它们，在这个过程中，我们寻求对数字工作平台进行认证：如果它们通过了，就给它们分配公平工作认证。最后，通过利益相关者参与的长期过程以及与工人、平台和政策制定者的接触，我们计划制定一项短期战略，向平台施压，迫使其改变政策，以改善工作条件，并制定一项长期战略，影响目前高度不受监管的行业的监管方向。

项目成果

The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for Improving Platform Work

Fairwork 基金会：改进平台工作的策略

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Graham, M.

TAMING PLATFORM CAPITALISM: STRUGGLES FROM THE GLOBAL SOUTH MEET STRUGGLES FROM THE GLOBAL NORTH

驯服平台资本主义：来自全球南方的斗争遭遇来自全球北方的斗争

• DOI: 10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11111
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research
• 作者: Arriagada A

Protecting Platform Workers: Options and Challenges

保护平台工作人员：选择与挑战

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Industrial Law Journal
• 影响因子: 1
• 作者: Du Toit, D

A Living Wage for South African Platform Workers, Fairwork

南非平台工人的生活工资，Fairwork

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Heeks R

A Modern Guide To Labour and the Platform Economy

劳动力和平台经济的现代指南

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Englert, S.,