Professor Mark Graham, addressing the 4th UNI Africa Conference in Dakar, Senegal, warned of the danger of ‘parasitic capitalism’ where digital companies give little back to the places where they are embedded and platform workers are left to fend for themselves.
UNI Global Union general secretary, Philip Jennings, said research into the ‘Future World of Work’ followed by action was crucial. “We have to face the reality - the research that has been undertaken by Oxford University, the World Economic Forum, the OECD and others - all points to a bleak future of employment which cuts across many sectors. This poses policy questions at all levels and there needs to be more urgency in the policy response.”
Prof Graham, the Oxford-based digital expert, drew on his recently launched paper Digital Labour and Development and the corresponding report The Risks and Rewards of Online Gig Work At the Global Margins, when making his address.
Graham said: “There is an alternative to the ‘Upwork.com ’ and ‘Mechanical Turk’ model which is unfortunately successfully pushing the platform economy in its image. Unions must work together to produce an alternative which safeguards the rights of workers. There is no time for excuses because the new structures are being put into place now.”
Graham proposed concrete solutions centred around creating bargaining power for digital platform workers.
Professor Graham concluded that he was not pessimistic about the Future World of Work, but that we should not shy away from the challenges.
He pointed out that some African countries were taking the initiative, such as Nigeria’s government which has developed a programme called ‘Microwork for Jobs creation’. Kenya’s government is planning something similar.
“Instead of imagining digital work as being undertaken in digital spaces, beyond the realm of regulation and worker-led governance, let’s remember it all happens somewhere. Digital work always has a geography.
“And we can use what we know about the economic geographies of digital work to envision and strive towards alternate and fairer future for working people in Africa and around the world.”
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