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Browsing by Author "Howson, Kelle"
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Item Fair work in South Africa’s gig economy: A journey of engaged scholarship(Elsevier, 2023) du Toit, Darcy; Van Belle, Jean-Paul; Howson, Kelle; Graham, MarkBecause of its relatively well-developed, highly urbanised economy and high penetration of mobile internet access, the platform economy took off quickly in South Africa, with international players vying for market share and local platforms pursuing more innovative approaches. Digital labour platforms have offered new earning opportunities to many in the country, but concerns have been raised about the quality of jobs created, and whether they meet standards of decent work. South Africa was one of the pilot countries for the Fairwork Project. This article describes the specific conditions which supported the take-off of location-based digital labour platforms in South Africa, explains the methodology used for pursuing the Fair work research, discusses ratings outcomes based on the empirical research and summarizes the action research component of the project—with particular attention paid to outcomes for workers. We also list some of the lessons that were learnt and give a critical reflection on the project in the hope of assisting other researchers investigating the fourth industrial revolution, the gig economy, and decent work standards, especially in the Global South.Item Protecting platform workers: options and challenges(Jute, 2022) du Toit, Darcy; Howson, KelleThe use of digital platforms as a means of organising work and creating new work opportunities (‘platform work’) is on the increase in developing as well as developed countries. The article starts from three widely-accepted premises: platform work typically falls beyond the scope of labour law because labour rights are generally limited to ‘employees’ whereas platforms typically classify their workers as ‘independent contractors’; in terms of international law, platforms workers enjoy the same basic rights as all other workers; and national legal regulation needs to be adapted in order to ensure protection of platform workers’ rights. In this context the article examines the obstacles to regulatory change and considers the use of rating systems as a means of exerting reputational pressure on platforms to acknowledge workers’ rights and implement fair working practices, using the Fairwork project and its interventions across four continents as an exemplar. It then turns to the need for legalregulation of platform work as a means of bringing about fair working practices where voluntary compliance fails. In particular, it considers broader definitions of ‘worker’ to identify all those deserving of legal protection in addition to ‘employees’, as well as the forms in which labour rights can meaningfully be extended to workers operating outside an employer’s workplace and managed via digital applications.