Online platforms fail test on decent work in Brazil
A survey assessing how the largest digital platforms in Brazil treat workers found that none of them secure minimum standards of decent work. The survey was conducted as part of the Fairwork Brasil project, linked to Oxford University, and heard six platforms: Uber, iFood, 99, Rappi, UberEats, and GetNinjas.
The score ranges from zero to ten for fair work based on pay, working conditions, contracts, management, and representation. The data stem from interviews with workers.
In the report, entitled Fairwork Brazil Ratings 2021: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy, the first under the project in Brazil, iFood and 99 scored two; Uber, one; and GetNinjas, Rappi, and Uber Eats, zero.
“Platforms can choose to reduce inequalities and unemployment. However, the annual Fairwork Brazil scoring provides evidence that platform workers, as in many countries around the world, face unfair working conditions, and suffer without protections,” the text reads.
Remuneration
When fair pay was evaluated, only 99 was able to show workers earn at least the local minimum wage of BRL 5,50 an hour, or BRL 1.212 monthly (2021), fees for using the platform deducted. In a public statement, the company declared that none of its workers earns less than the local minimum wage.
The study assessed whether workers were paid the local minimum wage, taking into account not only the amount paid for hours worked, but also the cost of task-specific equipment and other work-related costs that workers had to pay from their own pockets.
The calculations also considered the waiting time between work activities, which must be paid by the platforms. Most of them do not meet this basic principle, some even charging high platform entry fees.
“There are even platforms that require the worker to buy ‘coins’ to be able to access job offers on the platforms. Pay rates and working hours are also highly volatile, leading to a high income insecurity for workers,” said Rafael Grohmann, Fairwork’s coordinator in Brazil.
Working conditions
Uber and 99 were able to evidence actions to protect workers from task-specific risks, indicating they work to offer fair working conditions, though other platforms pointed to ongoing and planned projects to address such risks. According to the study, good practices involved eliminating barriers to access personal protective equipment and the provision of clear insurance policies.
“While some other platforms offer PPE, workers face many barriers (e.g., distance) to accessing them. Another recurring complaint is the lack of basic infrastructure such as access to bathrooms, rest areas, and drinking water. The main safety and health risks, according to the workers, are traffic
accidents, assaults, excessive exposure to the sun, back problems, stress, and mental suffering,” Grohmann noted.
Contracts
Only one platform (iFood) was able to provide evidence of basic standards in relation to fair contracts. As a result of their involvement with Fairwork, iFood created accessible terms and conditions for workers with illustrations.
However, the research coordinator said, providing accessible terms and conditions is sill a challenge for workers.
“Most platforms failed to achieve the basic point for fair contracts. To achieve this point, platforms need to provide a contract that is communicated in clear, comprehensible language, and accessible to workers at all times,” Grohman said.
According to Fairwork, platforms “also need to notify workers of proposed changes within a reasonable timeframe, another condition that five out of the six studied platforms did not fulfill.”
Representation
Finally, regarding representation—which concerns workers’ permission to organize themselves freely in the work environment—the study reveals that all platforms were found lacking. Only iFood reached basic level as it built a tool to help voice its workers, showing that after major strikes platform managers met with the workers’ representatives.
“With the creation of Riders’ Forum, iFood has instituted a channel through which collective worker voice can be expressed. We hope that iFood will continue and further expand this initiative to include as many organizers as possible,” Grohmann stated.
The coordinator went on to note the research makes an impact worldwide. “This is action research. Our principles can help build public policies and mechanisms towards decent work in the Brazilian platform economy, in collaboration with the several institutions interested.”
