Gig work: Long hours, less than minimum wage
RIDE-HAILING and delivery gig workers need to spend extended hours on the road and even then, struggle to net the equivalent of minimum wage, according to Fairwork Philippines, an advocacy for platform workers.
Cheryll Ruth R. Soriano, a professor at De La Salle University and principal investigator at Fairwork, said gig workers also take on the burden of investing in their vehicles, exposing them to debt and running costs.
“During low season, when they are not able to get sustainable gigs, they have to work long hours to recoup that,” she said.
In a policy brief, Fairwork Philippines said: “Despite working for extremely long hours, workers fail to earn a take-home pay that meets minimum wage levels, which highlights the financial insecurity experienced by platform workers.”
It pushed for a law to require platforms to ensure bookings sufficient to earn workers the equivalent of minimum wage, as well as safety nets for work-related deaths, accidents, injuries or illnesses.
“They are unable to meaningfully access and rely on government-mandated social welfare benefits if ever the need arises. As to the insurance policies extended by the platforms themselves, workers cannot effectively file for and claim insurance proceeds due to the precarity of platform work,” it noted.
It urged the Social Security Commission to make platform workers compulsorily covered by the Social Security System (SSS) and to adjust safety nets to account for their unique work circumstances.
The study also called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow platform workers, who are mandatorily covered by the SSS, to access unemployment insurance benefits.
It urged legislation that requires companies that hire gig workers to mandate that workers register in government-mandated social services such as SSS, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., and Home Development Mutual Fund, among others, as an initial qualification for engagement.
Gig workers are classified as third-party service providers, which can be interpreted by employers to mean that such workers are independent contractors, pointing to the need for amendments to the Labor Code that would recognize such terms of engagement as akin to an employer-employee relationship.
Fairwork is an action-research project coordinated by the Oxford Internet Institute and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. It evaluates the working conditions on digital platforms and issues ratings.
According to the 2022 edition of the Fairwork Philippines study, there are around 500,000 gig workers in the ride-hailing and delivery segments. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
