分類: Fairwork Asia Network Online Talk Series 2021

14-7-2021

4:00-5:30pm HKT (9:00-10:30am GMT+1), Zoom

Cloudworkers on platforms like Fiverr and Amazon Mechanical Turk are cast into a planetary-scale labour market, as their work can be performed from anywhere in the world with internet connection. These ‘independent contractors’ often experience high levels of subordination to, and dependence on platforms.

Based on surveys with 792 cloudworkers in 75 countries, Fairwork’s first ratings of 17 prominent cloudwork platforms found that the majority of them fail to provide basic standards of fairness for workers, and work on these platforms entails similar risks and harms to workers as in geographically-tethered platform work.

Speaker:

Dr. Kelle Howson, Postdoctoral researcher with the Fairwork project at the Oxford Internet Institute

Organizer:

Centre for Social Innovation, HKIAPS, CUHK

Contact:

Ms. Tsui – annawytsui@cuhk.edu.hk

2 June 2021, 12:30-2pm, ZOOM

This study employs the notion of embeddedness as an analytical framework to critically examine the social bases of gig work and platform-mediated labour market, and their connections with the broader capitalist systems. Taking Hong Kong as an example, this qualitative study conducts in-depth interviews with 24 workers who engaged in a variety of gig works or labour platforms. Drawing on the research findings, some implications for policy change and labour organising are suggested.

Speaker:

Tat Chor Au-Yeung (Lingnan University)

Organizer:

Centre for Social Innovation, HKIAPS, CUHK

Contact:

Ms. Tsui – annawytsui@cuhk.edu.hk

2021年4月21日

近期勞動關係因數位經濟之發展，發展出群眾外包與零工經濟等經濟型態，呈現出有別以往的「去僱用關係化」的趨勢，而數位平台工作者是否符合法律上的「勞工(僱員)」身分，衍生出勞動法之保障的問題。本次講座將跳脫勞工身分認定的問題，探討自僱者經由集體談判及集體行動所探尋之出路，且因部分國家的自僱勞工被法律禁止參與工會，或僅被允許參與由自僱者組織的工會，本研究藉分析台灣工會法及外送員集體行動的個案，回應上述議題。

講者

邱羽凡，台灣新竹市國立陽明交通大學科技法律學院副教授

主辦

香港中文大學亞太研究所社會創新研究中心

聯絡人

徐小姐(annawytsui@cuhk.edu.hk)

31 March 2021

12:30-2:00pm HKT (10:00am-12:30pm IST)

We will discuss the process of operationalising Fairwork Principles – Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management and Fair Representation – in India, in light of 3 years of fieldwork and the Indian legal context. These questions include how we should interpret “minimum wage”, “living wage”, “reasonable time frame”, or “meaningfully appealing” in the Indian context; how best to ask some of these questions and who to ask them of; and how these discussions are to be translated into the evidence to be sought from platforms and workers.

Speaker:

Janaki Srinivasan (Co-Investigator for Fairwork project in India; Assistant Professor, the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore)

24 February 2021

12:30-2:00pm Hong Kong time (UTC +08:00)

Analysing interview and survey data on food delivery workers in China between 2018-19, we have identified a trend of de-flexiblisation, contrary to the claimed affordance of flexibility in platform-mediated work. This is achieved through intertwined labour management tactics, technological engineering and the cultural normative of platform-dependent employment, cultivating what we refer to as “sticky labour”.

Speaker:

Sun Ping (Assistant Professor, Institute of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

20 January 2021

1:30-3:00pm Hong Kong/Singapore time (UTC+08:00)

YouTube Livestreaming, online registration: https://forms.gle/UfFWypQ1m2BAG1uP6

Speakers: Paska Darmawan, Treviliana Eka Putri

Center for Digital Society (CfDS), Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

In Indonesia, major platforms such as Grab and Gojek have launched several campaigns to increase the number of female drivers by promising work flexibility. This research will critically discuss the working experience of female motorbike taxi (ojek) drivers in Indonesia and the notion of flexibility that is often discussed as an advantage of working in the gig economy. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted in five cities, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Jakarta, Makassar, and Medan, in Indonesia from July until October 2020.

Profile of speakers:

Paska Darmawan is a Researcher for the Fairwork project in Indonesia. He is also the Digital Intelligence Manager at CfDS and a fellow of the Asia Pacific regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). He holds a Master of Science (M.S.) degree from Georgia Institute of Technology under the Fulbright Program. His research interests include digital activism, queer internet studies, and the use of ICT for empowering marginalized communities in the global south.

Treviliana Eka Putri is the Principal Investigator for the Fairwork project in Indonesia. She is a junior lecturer in the Department of International Relations and a researcher in CfDS. She obtained her Master’s in International Security from the University of Sydney. Her research interests include cybersecurity, digital society, and data and digital governance.

(This event is organised by the Centre for Social Innovation Studies and co-hosted by CfDS.)