Fairwork Germany Ratings 2021

On March 1, the report on the "Fairwork Germany 2021 Ratings" will be published. In the report Fairwork evaluates platforms operating in Germany, which have gained importance in the pandemic, according to established principles and informs about the situation of platform workers. On Wednesday, a webinar will be held on this topic. The report rates 12 of the most popular digital labour platforms in Germany, such as Gorillas, Helpling, Lieferando, and Uber.

Over the last two years, the COVID pandemic has shaped the platform economy in unprecedented ways. The increasing number of workers joining the platform economy has gone hand in hand with new platforms entering the German digital labour market. 2021 also show an increase in collective actions by platform workers to demand better pay and protections. For a second year, the Fairwork ratings highlights the wide variety of labour standards in the German platform economy, showing that working conditions, far from being homogeneous, differ significantly from platform to platform. Most importantly, our report shows how the increased competition in the market has not necessarily translated into improved labour standards. While some platforms have implemented policies over the past year to offer their workers better rights, overall, there is a long way for most platforms to offer decent labour standards.

Report author Dr Oğuz Alyanak will give a brief presentation with key findings from the report. This will be followed by a discussion with guest panellists: Prof h.c. Jutta Allmendinger, PhD (President, WZB Berlin Social Science Centre), Ana Dujić (Director, Policy Lab ‘Digital, Work & Society’ of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) and Prof Eva Kocher (European University Viadrina Frankfurt Oder). There will also be an open Q&A session for all attendees.

The report itself will be available from the Fairwork website Tuesday 1st March at 9:00 AM (CET).

Please do sign up here: https://bit.ly/3oXfhUF

Since 2020, the Fairwork Secretariat, a cooperation between the WZB and the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford), has been located at the WZB. The office is the central coordination point of the international Fairwork project, which researches and evaluates working conditions on digital platforms in 26 countries so far.