A new wave of apps offering African women opportunities in finding flexible gig work is also putting them at risk of abuse and exploitation Read more at straitstimes.com.
AFRICA - Women who mop, sweep and clean homes across Africa are riding a new wave of digital platforms that promise flexible work and fresh opportunity - but critics say the fast-growing apps only expose the gig workers to age-old abuse and exploitation. They say the women - many of them vulnerable migrants - run a gamut of risks by signing up for gig work on the new apps, from underpay to assault, injury to debt, reputational damage as well as scant benefits and zero trade union representation.
“Domestic work happens behind closed doors so there is less visibility and, partly as a result of this, domestic workers are more vulnerable to exploitation,” said Howson, who works with Fairwork, a gig research project at Britain’s Oxford Internet Institute. Interviewed in three countries across the continent, all asked to use pseudonyms for fear of being barred from their apps after speaking out. “We worry that these apps are undoing all the progress we fought so hard for,” said Gloria Kente, a former domestic worker turned organiser in the South African Domestic and Service Allied Workers Union.
About one third of domestic workers are already hired through agencies or platforms, according to the informal worker charity Wiego, a figure that gig economy experts say is likely to grow as both unemployment and tech access expands across the continent. Already, at least 365 digital platforms are found in eight African countries alone, connecting some 4.8 million workers to an average 92,000 users each month, according to South African think tank Cenfri.
“The constant tacit threat of deactivation ... reduces those workers’ power and agency,” said Howson of Fairwork. “They don’t know if they might wake up tomorrow and have lost their livelihoods.” Allegations of wrongdoing can also put a worker on the back foot.A former Sweep South senior employee said that when domestic workers were accused of stealing, external arbitrations were held by an ex-police detective.
The worker said he received no extra compensation despite logging a complaint about a job he called far more strenuous than the simple task outlined on the app. But the apps are quick to distance themselves from labour rights issues. “We are just a marketplace,” said Dinana of Filkhedma, explaining why employees who find work through the platform get no benefits such as maternity or sick leave.
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