Glovo, a platform company, has been ranked Nigeria’s top-scoring platform in fair work practices, according to the Fairwork Nigeria Ratings 2022/23, released on Friday.
The company came tops after being scored, alongside seven other platforms against five global principles of Fairwork — fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation.
The report was presented by the Fairwork Nigeria Team members at a webinar organised by the Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.
The team members include the Principal Researcher, Prof. Olayinka David-West; Co-Lead Researcher, Dr Kemi Ogunyemi; Researchers, Ms Amaka Anozie, and Ms Chinyere Emeshie.
Fairwork Nigeria is an initiative supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (GIZ).
David-West said at the event: “Our inaugural report scores platform companies in the ride hailing, food delivery and courier services sectors and their treatment of workers across the five Fairwork principles.
‘’Of the eight platform (Glovo, Lagos Ride, Kwik, Gokada, Uber, Bolt, Bolt Food, and Jumia Food) businesses, Glovo, with a score of four out of 10 points, is Nigeria’s top-scoring platform.
‘’By spotlighting the need for fairness and justice for platform workers, this report will guide policymakers, workers and associations, and customers who use these platforms toward improving the rights and working conditions of platform workers.”
Highlighting the report, she said that out of the eight platforms, only Glovo provided sufficient evidence of workers earning above the minimum wage of N30,000 a month and above the implied hourly minimum wage of N173.08 after work-related costs.
She said that some workers earned below those thresholds due to work-related expenses, high inflation, and differing individual earnings.
According to her, none of the platforms showed an effective mechanism or policy to ensure they met these thresholds.
‘’Out of eight platforms, only Glovo provided sufficient evidence of policies that mitigate against the risk of executing deliveries: these included providing safety gear such as helmets, raincoats and effective SOS buttons.
“None of the eight platforms could show income security for drivers unable to work because of sickness or non-accident related reasons, ‘’ David-West said.
The researcher said, however, that the report showed that no platform was able to provide sufficient evidence to ensure freedom of association and collective worker voice.
She said: ‘’We could not find evidence of any platform recognising an independent collective body of workers or trade unions.
‘’As far as we could tell, workers did not have a say in decisions affecting their working conditions nor access to mechanisms facilitating collective bargaining.’’
Also, the Co-Lead Researcher, Ogunyemi, said that the location-based platform economy could contribute to achieving the goal of poverty alleviation Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 in Nigeria.
According to her, the SDG1 can be achieved if the platforms in this space increase their levels of self-regulation and corporate ethos to bridge equity gaps that are not externally legislated.
‘’For example, moving toward ensuring platform workers earn a living wage and have access to protections from exposure to unsafe working conditions.
‘’We are at the beginning of Fairwork’s interaction with platforms operating in Nigeria.
“Also, we hope that our engagement with them will enrich the ecosystem for all stakeholders by fostering higher scores on the five Fairwork principles and leading to increased customer support for the platforms, ” she said.
