{"id":231465,"date":"2022-07-15T16:16:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T14:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/digital-labour-platforms-subject-global-south-workers-to-algorithmic-insecurity\/"},"modified":"2022-07-15T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T14:16:07","slug":"digital-labour-platforms-subject-global-south-workers-to-algorithmic-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/digital-labour-platforms-subject-global-south-workers-to-algorithmic-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital labour platforms subject global South workers to ‘algorithmic insecurity’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Digital labour platforms are rapidly transforming the world of work. Many governments in the global south have welcomed platforms that bring businesses, workers and consumers<\/a> together, creating opportunities to reduce unemployment. But what happens when jobs are turned into tasks? Workers are increasingly managed by apps that allocate these tasks and monitor their performance. Platform workers face low pay, poor working conditions \u2013 and algorithmic surveillance.<\/p>\n

The number of digital platforms has expanded rapidly<\/a> over the past decade, a trend accelerated by COVID-19. Most are concentrated in just a few locations<\/a>, among them the US, India and the UK. There is also a significant imbalance<\/a> between the demand for digital workers based in the global north and the supply of workers in need of income opportunities, in the global south.<\/p>\n

There are two broad types<\/a> of digital labour platforms. The first are \u201clocation-based\u201d. They mediate tasks carried out in person at particular locations: delivering food, taxi services, domestic work and care services. The second are \u201conline web-based\u201d. They mediate tasks such as data categorisation and translation and editing services that can, in theory, be performed anywhere via the internet and remotely.<\/p>\n

While digital labour platforms create new opportunities for income, they also threaten to extend informality into new sectors through \u201calgorithmic insecurity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Claimed advantages<\/h2>\n

Platform work is often seen to create opportunities that better suit workers\u2019 skills, interests and schedules. This increased flexibility is said to provide workers, particularly women who have to balance paid and unpaid care work, with income opportunities and greater autonomy over their work. However, a growing body of evidence<\/a> shows that the flexibility of many of these jobs comes at a cost to workers\u2019 economic security and control over the work process.<\/p>\n

Many people are drawn to platform work because they aspire for the greater autonomy and control that comes from \u201cnot having a boss\u201d. Yet, as Brazilian historian Lucas Santos<\/a> shows in his research with food delivery workers in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, riders soon realise that the \u201cfeeling of freedom\u201d they associate with \u201cworking for an app\u201d is more aspiration than reality.<\/p>\n

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Read more: For workers in Africa, the digital economy isn’t all it’s made out to be<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Indian sociologist Gayatri Nair\u2019s<\/a> research shows that many gig workers in India are attracted to the \u201cinitial fa\u00e7ade of formality and respectability\u201d. Many women workers in India\u2019s beauty sector see \u201cdigital mediation\u201d via an app as creating a \u201cform of respectability\u201d that was not there before. But, Nair shows, earnings are meagre and many workers lack autonomy and control over their work. Digital labour platforms, she argues, are creating new forms of \u201calgorithmic insecurity\u201d in the form of surveillance, ratings, and arbitrary changes to remuneration.<\/p>\n

The reality of algorithmic control<\/h2>\n

Digital labour platforms often deny any employment relation. They insist that they act simply as a mediator between businesses, workers and consumers. What distinguishes them from a traditional labour market intermediary is that what they mediate is a single task, activity or service rather than a job<\/a> in the traditional sense. And though platforms are never fully autonomous, they manage workers and tasks using algorithms (computer programmed procedures). In so doing they minimise human interaction. <\/p>\n

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Read more: The Fourth Industrial Revolution: a seductive idea requiring critical engagement<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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This process of automating work processes and the coordination of tasks is often referred to as \u201calgorithmic management\u201d<\/a> or \u201calgorithmic control\u201d.<\/p>\n

For example, food delivery workers in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a> and Johannesburg<\/a>, South Africa receive automated instructions on their mobile phones about where to collect and drop off the food, and the route via GPS map they should take. South African sociologists Eddie Webster and Fikile Masikane show<\/a> that digital labour platforms not only assign tasks: they also assess performance and determine pay. They have the power to deactivate or disconnect a worker from the platform, unilaterally terminating employment.<\/p>\n

Algorithmic management is invisible and inaccessible. It also controls all aspects of the work process. As Colombian sociologist Derly Yohanna Sanchez<\/a> points out, this control extends to more than just the \u201csupply and demand\u201d for digital work. Platforms also control aspects of the work that are, she says, \u201cexternal to the digital market such as personal information and human resources\u201d. <\/p>\n

This can produce anti-competitive or discriminatory outcomes, or both. For example, platforms give customers, as Nair<\/a> put it, \u201cfull power to rate and review\u201d workers. This algorithmic \u201cdisciplining\u201d of workers via customer ratings has minimised transparency and accountability. It has also created perverse \u201cinformation asymmetries\u201d, as noted by communications scholar Sai Amulya Kommarraju<\/a>. These make it nearly impossible for workers to contest customer ratings or challenge the forms of algorithmic control they are subjected to.<\/p>\n

Resistance<\/h2>\n

Although algorithmic control appears insurmountable, there is some evidence that workers are beginning to push back<\/a> and fight for greater transparency and improved worker conditions. <\/p>\n

In December 2020, Uber drivers in Johannesburg, South Africa launched a protest<\/a> by disabling the Uber app and not accepting requests for rides. Among the drivers\u2019 complaints were the obscure way in which their accounts were blocked by Uber and the inequitable way in which the fees earned by drivers were unilaterally decided and implemented by Uber. <\/p>\n

There are also examples of workers forming platform cooperatives<\/a> and demanding collective user rights over their data<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If digital labour platforms are here to stay it is an imperative to build platforms and algorithms that prioritise the interests and needs of workers<\/a>, not only business. Giving workers the right to access and have control over their data is, International Labour Organisation economist Uma Rani<\/a> argues, one of the most important ways to \u201cempower worker control over algorithmic management\u201d. This will require both regulation and pressures from below, by consumers and workers.<\/p>\n

The Future of Work(ers) Research Programme at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand is hosting a seven-part dialogue series. The aim is to generate public debate on the relationship between digital technologies, the changing nature of work(ers) and the implications for inequality.<\/em><\/p>\n

The upcoming dialogue on \u201cAutomation, labour-replacement and labour market restructuring\u201d will take place on 19 July from 3:30 to 5:00pm, SAST. To register click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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