Self-Organising Workers in the Gig Economy

The Workers Observatory project is organising with workers from the gig economy, mostly delivery drivers in the cities. Xabier Villares reports.

On the 12th of December, the Workers Observatory (WO) will launch a report sharing the outcome of the latest and biggest project the workers have undertaken so far. 

The Workers’ Observatory brings gig workers together with organisers and researchers to monitor and challenge the systems of control used by platforms like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. The main goal of the current project is for workers to gain an understanding of how these giant on-demand delivery platforms are deploying algorithmically managed systems and other AI technologies to control their work. The power imbalance between workers and the company has led to extremely long shifts, pay discrimination, and chronic precarity.

In the process of mapping and probing their work processes, workers are developing a collective voice. As food delivery workers we are out in the cold, delivering across the city. Across the city of Edinburgh, where the WO is based, you can see us gathering at the end of Princes Street, in front of the St James Quarter, on Constitution Street and in Bristo Square. Thousands of riders, meet in informal virtual and physical spaces, fighting the algorithm by themselves and on their own. Our paths cross every shift, we see the city, we share our insights, but we lack collective representation.

The biggest fraction of workers doing this kind of work are migrants, and the project is led by migrants originally from South Asia and Spanish-speaking countries. For the last four months, we have engaged with hundreds of other riders to get a real, accurate reflection of the situation in this city. Edinburgh is a capital of contrasts that hosts some of the most advanced institutions in robotics and AI in the whole world, promising to make millions of jobs irrelevant, while also incubating and innovating in exploitative practices that are tested out in the very same streets.

Organising in this field is far from an easy task. Those who work hardest for these companies are the most vulnerable. This is one of the main contradictions in the gig economy: we’re talking about riders going out six or seven days a week, serving long shifts, and accepting orders for less than £3. They rely heavily on this particular work, in many cases as their main source of income, with few other options to pay rent and support families. It takes time to build up trust and networks to have open conversations about the situation – let alone to build grassroots power.

We have managed to assemble a diverse team of twenty riders from ground zero. I have to say that breaking barriers and biases when working together through two days of workshops has been the most satisfactory part so far. We now all understand that the fees that platforms are paying are the lowest we have seen in this city since the WO started back in 2019, and that the only culprit is the platform itself – it is never other riders. This has been a crucial part of fostering solidarity in a fragmented community, where riders have all kind of backgrounds. These meetings led to a thrilling moment with the creation of ROOM – a new collective focusing on building a riders’ movement for the city and potentially the country.

In the last few weeks since the workshop, the work was back to the streets. We made a survey on working conditions that is still circulating. We’ve faced new issues at this stage: riders are keen to complete the survey but face a loss of income and ratings to complete it during working time. In addition, we’re frequently confronted by security guards, whether at Fountain Park or at St James Quarter, just for calmly talking to other riders: just for being in the same streets where we work.

All this activity is part of the unstoppable tendency of gig workers to organise. In the same way that algorithms are more and more embedded in our work and also in our personal lives, the conscious organisation of gig workers is developing fast. The WO is a means to that end.

If you are interested, come and hear riders and researchers share insights from the survey and reverse surveillance work, and meet other organisations interested in this work from myriad of perspectives. Fair work, anti-poverty, human rights, the wellbeing economy, and even climate justice are all advanced when the gig workers of the city unite.

Follow the project at: workersobservatory.org and you can sign up to the event here: