[Air-L] Call for Fairwork Partners: Decent Work Standards in the Platform Economy

[Michelle Gardner]

Call for Fairwork Partners: Decent Work Standards in the Platform Economy
https://fair.work/en/fw/blog/call-for-fairwork-partners-decent-work-standards-platform-economy/#continue

This is a call for proposals for one-year funded partnerships with Fairwork<https://fair.work>, which works to ensure decent work standards for workers on digital platforms. Proposals must be submitted by April 18, 2022 via email to kristin.thompson at wzb.eu<mailto:kristin.thompson at wzb.eu>  and michelle.gardner at oii.ox.ac.uk.<mailto:michelle.gardner at oii.ox.ac.uk>

“Fair Work in the Platform Economy: A Global South Perspective” is an action research project funded by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit). The project is co-ordinated Professor Mark Graham at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, with key coordinating partners including Professor Martin Krzywdzinski at the WZB: Berlin Social Science Centre and Professor Richard Heeks at the Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester.

Fairwork’s main focus is rating digital labour platforms – mainly but not exclusively in the ride-hailing, delivery and domestic work sectors – according to five decent work principles<https://fair.work/principles>: fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.  Evidence is gathered from the platforms themselves and from worker interviews, with each platform being awarded a score between 0 and 10 (see examples here<https://fair.work/ratings>).

Fairwork’s action research approach intends not just to understand the platform economy across the world, but to change it. By bringing workers, platforms, scholars, labour researchers and policymakers to the table, we work to collaboratively develop and embed principles of fair work into the script of the platform economy. Fundamental to the project is a commitment to being participatory in our research and non-hierarchical within our communities. Our aim is to understand, and counter, some of the forces that disempower platform workers across the world. We are a transnational network of social justice-minded scholars<https://fair.work/en/fw/about/people> in pursuit of this planetary goal.

Launched in 2018, the project has so-far produced ratings for more than 200 digital labour platforms (both geographically tethered, and remote), and currently operates in 27 countries on five continents.

Thanks to funding from GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), we are able to support seven new partners with funding of up to £21,000.

We are seeking partners in:
Albania, Algeria, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo (DR), Ethiopia, Georgia, Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Palestinian Territories, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

Description of Partner Activities:
We expect partners to conduct the following as part of the Fairwork Activities in a scoring round:

  1.  Desk Research: Selection of digital labour platforms to be studied and identifying key local stakeholders. Local ethical approval for data gathering must also be obtained. Months 1-2)
  2.  Project Set-Up: initial in-country stakeholder workshop to discuss design and implementation of the planned project with platforms, worker associations, government representatives, NGOs, etc.  (Months 2-4)
  3.  Data Gathering: rating of platforms against Fairwork principles via anonymised worker interviews and interaction with local platform managers to obtain internal company evidence.  We anticipate between 6-12 local platforms to be rated, with each rating involving interviews with 6-10 workers. (Months 4-9)
  4.  Dissemination: dissemination of results to local stakeholders with co-development of strategic action plans for platforms, workers and government to improve platform work standards.  Dissemination of results to Fairwork community through attendance at a special workshop, and to international research forums including attendance at an international conference and development of a peer-reviewed research publication. (Months 10-12)
Please note that all activities are undertaken with members of the Fairwork project team.

The Budget
Teams will be funded with a total up to £21,000 for one year initially. Specific budgets will be set up with partners after the selection process. Allowable costs include staff and non-staff costs, related to running the research activities in a scoring round. All budget lines will be agreed pre-award with potential partners.
Partners will receive the funding from the University of Oxford, and a financial collaboration agreement will be set up between partner institutions and the University of Oxford.
Please note that financial procurement rules apply to all financial commitments made by partner institutions, as part of our funding requirements.

The Proposal
Proposals must be emailed to kristin.thompson at wzb.eu<mailto:kristin.thompson at wzb.eu>  and michelle.gardner at oii.ox.ac.uk.<mailto:michelle.gardner at oii.ox.ac.uk>