It is not just the consumers of these companies who were seen complaining in 2022. According to Fair Work India's 2022 report, ride-hailing companies Uber and Ola, quick commerce platform Dunzo, online pharmacy PharmEasy, and delivery platform Amazon Flex had the worst working conditions for gig workers.
Fair Work, which assesses the working conditions of gig workers, evaluated digital platforms on five principles. These included fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, proper management and fair representation, each with a basic and advanced point. For the second year in a row, Uber and Ola received zero points on a scale of ten.
There were some top performers in Fair Work’s list too. This year's top performers included Urban Company, which topped the chart with seven points, Tata Group-owned BigBasket was second with six points, e-commerce marketplace Flipkart and food-delivery platform Swiggy were both at five points.
Swiggy's ‘publicly traded competitor’ Zomato received four points, while quick commerce platform Zepto and delivery logistics firm Porter received two and one points respectively.
According to the report, BigBasket, Flipkart and Urban Company implemented policies this year to ensure that all workers on these platforms earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after accounting for work-related costs.
"We were unable to demonstrate any platform meeting the second point's threshold, which requires the platform to commit or provide sufficient evidence that workers earn at least the local living wage after work-related costs," the report mentioned. However, none of the twelve digital platforms solicited for this report obtained a single point for Fair Representation.
BigBasket received the most points in the survey for the Fair Conditions principle. Flipkart. Swiggy Urban Company and Zomato - for streamlining their insurance claims process and providing live emergency helplines on the platform interface.
However, the report only gave BigBasket, Swiggy, and Urban Company the advanced point for implementing a loss of pay policy to provide workers with a financial safety net during medical illnesses.
On the Fair Contracts principle, seven of the twelve platforms surveyed received the first point, and five platforms - Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato - received the advanced point for modifying their contracts to reduce liability asymmetry and adding a clause for dispute resolution between workers and platforms.
Similarly, while five firms received the primary point for having a grievance redressal process with the option of connecting with a human representative, only Urban Company met the criteria for the second point for carrying out regular external audits to identify biases in its work allocation systems.
"We are committed to empowering our service partners to live respectful middle-class lives, constantly improving their earnings & well being, and enabling them to delight our customers," Abhiraj Singh Bhal, cofounder of Urban Company, tweeted after the report’s findings were disclosed.