Ola Continues to Rank Lowest in Gig Worker Fairness

Ola Remains at the Bottom for the Third Consecutive Year in Gig Worker Fairness Rankings; BluSmart Emerges as the Leading Fairness Contender in Ride-Hailing, While BigBasket Leads the Table

On October 30, 2023, Deepsekhar Choudhury reported on the latest Fairwork India rankings regarding the fairness of e-commerce platforms toward gig workers. Ola, a prominent ride-hailing company, received a score of zero out of 10 points for the third consecutive year, placing it at the bottom of the fairness rankings.

In contrast, BluSmart, a challenger to Ola and Uber in the ride-hailing sector, emerged as a frontrunner in terms of fairness with a score of 5 out of 10. Uber, another major player in the ride-hailing space, scored 1 point.

The top spot in the fairness rankings was claimed by BigBasket with a score of 6 points. Zomato, Swiggy, Urban Company, and BluSmart shared the second position with 5 points each. Other platforms, such as Zepto, Flipkart, Amazon, Dunzo, and Porter, also received varying scores, with Ola at the bottom of the table with zero points.

BluSmart's unique operational model, which involves owning and leasing vehicles to its workers, sets it apart from other platforms operating on "asset-light" models. This distinction has led to optimism that BluSmart's approach could contribute to improved working conditions for drivers in the platform economy.

In this year's rankings, no platform received more than six out of a possible ten points. Additionally, no platform scored full marks across all five fairness principles, which include pay, working conditions, contracts, management, and representation.

A survey of 963 consumers was conducted across the 12 platforms ranked by Fairwork India to gauge awareness and perception of working conditions among platform workers in 12 major cities. This year has seen the introduction of the Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023, which reflects a significant regulatory development based on worker inputs. The report highlights the need for structural changes by platforms, consumers, and the state to ensure decent work for platform economy workers.

BigBasket, Flipkart, and Urban Company were the only platforms that had established a minimum wage policy to guarantee that all workers earned at least the local hourly minimum wage, factoring in work-related costs.

While no platform met the second point of the Fair Pay principle, which requires platforms to provide sufficient evidence that workers earn at least the local living wage after considering work-related costs, Urban Company publicly committed to this objective.

Several platforms, including Amazon Flex, BigBasket, BluSmart, Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Uber, Zepto, and Zomato, received the first point under the Fair Conditions principle for providing adequate safety equipment and periodic safety training to workers.

Only BigBasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato were awarded the second point under the Fair Conditions principle for providing workers with accident insurance coverage at no extra cost, compensating for income loss in cases of inability to work due to medical reasons other than accidents, and ensuring that workers' standing was not negatively affected after a break with prior notification to the platform.

Seven out of the 12 platforms received the first point for the Fair Contracts principle. BigBasket, BluSmart, Dunzo, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato earned this point for ensuring the accessibility and comprehensibility of their contracts and having a protocol for data protection and worker data management.

BigBasket, BluSmart, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato met the requirements for the second point under Fair Contracts by incorporating a change notification clause in their contracts, reducing disparities in liability, adopting a Code of Conduct for subcontractors, and ensuring transparent pricing variables for dynamic pricing usage.

The report concludes by emphasizing the need for ongoing efforts to improve working conditions and fairness for gig workers in the platform economy.