How tech can support a fairer future for work for everyone
New research by Doteveryone explains why we need to reform the gig economy and offers advice on what the best practice, responsible tech approach to gig work might look like.
Recommendations for fairer gig working
Over seven months, Doteveryone shadowed Uber drivers in Stoke-on-Trent, interviewed micro-taskers, cycle couriers, handymen and cleaners, and travelled to Copenhagen for the 2019 TechFestival to champion workers’ ideas for change. From this research, it has proposed long-term policy change and has prototyped best practice for platforms to implement these changes immediately.Related reading:
- Have the wheels come off the gig economy’s growth?
- Why the gig economy may not be the workforce of the future
As well as listening to workers’ experiences, Doteveryone used their input to create an imagined platform – AvocaGo that caters to the customer’s every avocado need – which prototypes what the best practice, responsible technology approach to gig work might look like.Mr Ohrvik-Stott adds, “The recommendations meet the needs of those most disadvantaged, and in doing so, they serve everyone.”The report champions three pillars of better work:
- Financial security – the Government should create a minimum gig wage that accounts for the unavoidable costs of being a platform worker. Platforms should provide greater data transparency to help workers navigate their finances and show customers where their money goes.
- Dignity – companies should create governance structures that give workers a greater voice in the design of platforms they work for. Platforms should also provide access to human interaction to solve workers’ questions or help them seek redress.
- Dreams – the Government’s National Retraining Scheme [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-retraining-scheme/national-retraining-scheme], set up to address the expected impacts of automation on the economy, should be adapted to provide the holistic support that gig workers need now. And Help Hotspots would provide a broad range of drop-in support for people in locations and times that fit into gig workers’ daily lives.
Read more about the government’s National Retraining Scheme
Serving the interests of everyone in society
Martha Lane Fox, executive chair & founder of Doteveryone, says, “We have seen many gains as a society and as consumers from the fantastic pace of technological change and the flexible and independent nature of work today. But, as this research shows, there are many perils. We underestimate them at our very grave risk.“The gig economy can be fantastically empowering if you can work on the terms you wish for. But it can also be destabilising, dehumanising and dispiriting if you don’t. The convenience of a taxi ride or a takeaway must not be traded for the rights of people to work with financial security and dignity and to fulfil their dreams for the future.“The recommendations in this report are designed for the furthest first. If we meet the needs of those made most vulnerable by the impacts of new technologies, we will serve the interests of everyone in society.”Read more news and articles on Technology.
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