In the latest Fairwork India Ratings 2024, ride-hailing companies Ola and Uber, along with logistics startup Porter, received a score of zero for their poor working conditions for gig workers. The report, which evaluates how well digital platforms in India treat their workers, pointed out serious issues with worker protection on these platforms.
Ola Uber Ratings
The Fairwork India Ratings are prepared by a team from the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) and Oxford University, and assess labor standards across India’s gig economy. The 2024 evaluation included 11 digital platforms like Amazon Flex, Flipkart, Swiggy, BigBasket, Urban Company, Zepto, and others. The platforms were evaluated based on five key principles to measure how fairly they treat gig workers.
Five Principles of Fairwork India Ratings
The report used the following five principles to rate platforms:
- Fair Pay
- Fair Conditions
- Fair Contracts
- Fair Management
- Fair Representation
Each platform could earn up to two points per principle, with a maximum score of 10 points. However, none of the platforms scored more than six points. Ola, Uber, and Porter scored zero points, highlighting the gaps in their treatment of gig workers.
Top Performers in the Report
On the other hand, companies like BigBasket, Swiggy, Zomato, and Urban Company scored six points, making them the highest-ranked platforms. These platforms were recognized for improvements in areas like fair pay and fair conditions. BigBasket and Urban Company stood out for their minimum wage policies, ensuring that workers earn at least the local minimum wage after costs related to work.
Issues with Fair Pay
Despite some improvements, none of the platforms met the second point for Fair Pay, which requires ensuring a living wage beyond the minimum wage. A living wage would help workers achieve a decent standard of living, but this is still missing across all platforms.
Challenges for Ola, Uber, and Porter
The report highlighted serious challenges for Ola, Uber, and Porter. These companies do not have policies that guarantee fair wages, safe working conditions, or worker representation. The absence of a minimum wage policy and poor protection against work-related risks led to their zero scores. Even Uber, which scored one point in last year’s ratings, dropped to zero in 2024. None of these platforms have systems that allow workers to collectively represent themselves or negotiate through an independent body, leaving gig workers without a voice to address their concerns.
