Fairwork Scores: Decent Work Standards on Platforms in South Africa, 2021

Work on digital labour platforms has been shown to frequently fall short of decent labour standards. Platform work takes place in a highly unregulated context, and in most countries platform workers are not protected by minimum labour standards governing pay, health and safety, fair due process, and representation. Platform work has rapidly expanded as an anticipated engine of job creation in the Global South, however, there is a lack of data to enable policymakers to evaluate job quality in the platform economy, and the potential of platform work to provide sustainable livelihoods. This project gathered data in South Africa against a set of criteria of decent platform work (the Fairwork Principles). The Principles were established through a process of consultation and consensus building with platform workers, platforms and other stakeholders from several regions, at meetings held at the ILO in 2018. Drawing on evidence provided by platform managers, research interviews with platform workers, and desk research, the resultant data took the form of 'scores' for prominent platforms in South Africa against five principles, and ten thresholds of decent work. We now share annual fairness scorecards for key platforms operating in the South African market, for 2019, 2020 and 2021.