South Africa's 'gig workers' are under increasing strain, according to the Fairwork report.This enables platforms to avoid costs arising from employees' rights.Some workers reported that their hourly costs exceeded their estimated hourly pay.www.BusinessInsider.co.zaSouth Africa's 'gig workers' are under increasing strain. This is according to the fourth annual Fairwork report compiled by Oxford University and the University of Cape Town .
As they are not classified as employees, but as self-employed or independent contractors, the platforms can avoid the costs arising from employees' rights, like minimum pay, maximum hours, and paid leave.Fairwork's ranked 13 platforms like local ones SweepSouth, MrD, and M4JAM, as well as international ones like Uber, and UberEats out of 10 on their treatment of workers based on: pay, conditions, contracts, how well they are managed, and representation.
Instead of just awarding points to the platforms for their written policies, this year, they were asked to provide evidence they compensated workers for when they could not work, and that workers had a real say in their working conditions.The reduced scores indicate that it might be time for the government to start regulating them, says Pitso Tsibolane, senior lecturer in the department of information systems at UCT.
The importance of fuel prices can be seen in most platform workers saying transportation costs are now the biggest contributor to their work-related expenses.
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