- Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Recap
Recap: International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV)
The Sao Paulo State Court has just sentenced the company Uber in Brazil to pay a 2 Mio. USD because Uber did not correctly classify its drivers as employees but as self-employed despite work requirements.
This incident, among other topics, was the discussion basis for the exchange at the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil attended by the political initiatives Gig Economy and SADA at the end of September.
Leonardo Fabri, former Coordinator for Reputation and Empowerment of Delivery Drivers at the food delivery service iFood, explained that the discussions around classifications do not properly represent the concerns of workers. They are more interested in understanding how the app’s algorithms work and how they affect the blocking of drivers or the allocation of jobs.
Katrine Scomparin, founder of a delivery service for favelas, reiterated the need for the workers’ perspective and shared her company’s approaches to reducing road hazards or violence on the streets.
Moreover, the research of Prof. Matheus Braz from the Federal University of Minas Gerais highlighted that platform work does not only affect workers’ physical but also their mental health. Especially in cloud work, i.e. non-location based platform work, people suffer from tasks such as e.g. reviewing potentially harmful content and the lack of institutional support to cope with processing these images and the influence on their mental health.
All participants concluded that increased collaboration between private sector, governments and regulatory authorities is needed to contribute to creating a safer and better environment for people relying on platform work.
This is where the SADA and Gig Economy initiatives come in, as they provide learning content and exchange opportunities on platform work for policymakers. On this basis, participants can advocate for better policy and regulatory frameworks for platform work.