The Fairwork Study for Cloudwork is a comprehensive research initiative to assess and improve working conditions within the digital labor platforms or “gig economy.” The study evaluates these platforms against a set of guiding principles known as the Fairwork principles and employs a scoring system to measure their adherence to these principles. Fairwork’s ultimate goal is to achieve the best working conditions for all workers.
ComeUp is rated among the freelancing platforms with the best working conditions for all workers.
In 2023, ComeUp was voted the freelancing platform with the best working conditions by the Fairwork Cloudwork study conducted by the Oxford University Internet Institute. You can find the full rankings here.
But we don’t want to stop there. We still have work to do to achieve the ideal working conditions for our community, and we will continue doing everything we can to ensure the best working conditions possible for ComeUp sellers.
This article about the Fairwork study was written to share our score and to put the spotlight on the Fairwork study. We hope that with more awareness about the study, people will be more careful about which platforms they use. Considering the rights of workers should be primordial in people’s decisions. Choosing a platform that empowers its users and gives them the basic rights they have over one that abuses them should be a simple decision for all.
Ultimately, we hope this will foster change by pushing more companies to participate and make changes so that the general working conditions for Cloudwork workers across all platforms improve.
Fairwork principles
The Fairwork principles are a framework developed by the Fairwork project to establish fair labor standards in the platform economy. These principles are designed to promote decent working conditions, fair pay, transparency, and worker voice, and they serve as a benchmark for evaluating the ethical and social responsibility of digital labor platforms. The five remaining Fairwork principles are as follows:
- Fair Pay: This principle emphasizes ensuring workers receive a wage that meets or exceeds minimum wage standards for their locality. Fairwork examines whether platforms provide transparent and predictable payment structures and whether workers can access accurate earnings information. Workers should also be paid on time for the work they complete.
- Fair Conditions: Fair Conditions require platforms to establish and enforce terms and conditions that prioritize the well-being and safety of workers. This principle assesses the extent to which platforms protect workers from harm and provide adequate support and resources.
- Fair Contracts: This principle focuses on the clarity and fairness of the contracts between Cloudwork platforms and workers. Fairwork assesses the transparency of terms and conditions and ensures that contracts are not one-sided or oppressive.
- Fair Management: Fair Management emphasizes that platforms should not unfairly disadvantage workers through their rating systems or other management practices. The principle encourages just and accountable management practices that avoid arbitrary penalties or deactivations.
- Fair Representation: Fair Representation calls for platforms to respect the rights of workers to organize, access support networks, and have a voice in the decisions that affect them. This principle evaluates whether Cloudwork platforms engage with worker organizations and provide grievance mechanisms.
Fairwork’s Cloudwork Scoring System
To evaluate Cloudwork platforms’ adherence to the Fairwork principles, the Fairwork Study employs a scoring system tailored to Cloudwork. Each Cloudwork principle has two points. The total score for a Cloudwork platform is the sum of its scores across these principles, with a maximum possible score of 10. Cloudwork platforms that score higher demonstrate a greater commitment to fair and ethical labor practices in the gig economy.
The Fairwork Study assesses a variety of Cloudwork platforms, including those offering services related to remote work, freelancing, and online collaborations. Researchers gather information through a combination of desk research, platform interviews, worker surveys, and other relevant sources to evaluate each Cloudwork platform’s performance based on the Cloudwork-specific Fairwork principles.
You can learn more about the Cloudwork-specific Fairwork principles and their application by visiting the following link: Cloudwork Principles.
In summary, the Fairwork Study for Cloudwork evaluates digital labor platforms in the Cloudwork sector using specific Fairwork principles designed for this context. The scoring system measures how well Cloudwork platforms adhere to these principles, with higher scores indicating a stronger commitment to fair and ethical labor practices in Cloudwork. The study assesses a range of Cloudwork platforms and collects data from various sources to evaluate their performance within the context of Cloudwork.
Now that you have this information, we hope you will find it useful when you choose where to order services from or where you want to find freelancers. We hope to one day reach the perfect score of 10, and all other freelancing platforms will do the same.
