Program

 

Powered by advances in machine learning, digital platforms have emerged as ubiquitous infrastructure to constitute contemporary political-economy in at least two ways. Firstly, they represent a new business model, in the form of “online marketplaces that involve at least three parties where the platform provider serves as an intermediary coordinating supply and demand sides of the other two parties”.[1] Secondly, the  rapidly growing platform economy offers work opportunities which fall into two categories.[2] One, is employment i.e, when a person is hired by the platform for its operations, with a legally-defined employment relationship. This category constitutes a tiny fraction of those hired. By contrast, the vast majority of hires perform platform-mediated individual ‘gigs’ or tasks, and are categorized as self-employed or independent contractors with few legal protections.

 

While gig work offers economic opportunities for many who may have few alternatives,  and  platforms project themselves as “a revolution in labour markets”, able to help lift people out of poverty,”[3] the ILO takes a dimmer view. It does not term gig work as decent work, or “work that is productive; ensures equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men; delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families; provides prospects for personal development; and gives workers the freedom to express their concerns, organize and participate in decisions that affect their working lives.”[4] 

 

The session will draw on the experience of the Workshop Coordinator, who is the Principal Investigator of the Fairwork India project. Over the past six years, the project has examined the experiences of gig workers to ask if it is possible for technology-mediated gig work to be more decent or fair. To trigger a discussion among participants about gig work in their own countries, the session will rely on Fairwork principles of pay, conditions, contracts, management (human and algorithmic), and representation, to explore how the reliance on gig work to provide services, by the publicly-accessible but privately-owned platforms, violate the tenets of Sustainable Development Goals 8 (promotion of full and productive employment and decent work for all)., and how they might be mitigated through policy and technology design. In addition, to enable participants to ‘experience’ gig work, the session will rely on the board game GIG LANE developed by the Fairwork India research team at the Center for Information Technology and Public Policy, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore.