08 July 2021 - 12:38An estimated 30,000 workers in SA are engaged in location-based platform work like taxi driving, delivery and cleaning. Stock photo.
This is according to a report that evaluates the working conditions in 12 of the most popular digital labour platforms in SA, including Uber, Bolt, SweepSouth and Mr D. “A vast majority of gig workers faced financial precarity during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the report. To understand the state of gig work in SA, Fairwork, a collaboration between the universities of Oxford, Cape Town, the Western Cape and Manchester, assessed 12 of the country’s largest digital labour platforms against five principles of fairness — pay, working conditions, contracts, management and representation — giving each a fairness rating out of 10.
According to the report, digital labour platforms hold the potential to reduce SA’s sky-high unemployment and inequality, with an estimated 30,000 workers engaged in location-based platform work like taxi driving, delivery and cleaning.
Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)