Fairwork is an action-research project that currently operates in the UK, Germany, South Africa, India, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Egypt, and Bangladesh. We research working conditions in the gig economy, in order to develop ‘fairness ratings’ for digital labour platforms. We use these ratings as a lever to improve pay and conditions for platform workers, through media and consumer pressure.

Fairwork’s programme of action research intends not just to understand the world, but to change it. By bringing workers, platforms, scholars, labour researchers and policymakers to the table, we work to collaboratively develop and embed principles of fair work into the script of the gig economy. Fundamental to the project is a commitment to being participatory and non-hierarchical within our communities: we are all – workers, unions, platforms, regulators, academics – the experts, and we all have co-developed this project. Our ultimate aim is to understand, and counter some of the forces that disempower gig workers across the world. Over the past three years, we have mobilised a unique and growing transnational network of social justice-minded scholars from over ten countries in pursuit of this planetary goal.