Author: Raiyaan Mahbub

With the proliferation of the Internet and smartphones, the very nature of work has been transformed over the past decade. The employee-employer dynamic that was present in the previous century has started to evolve, paving the way for new forms of work that were unimaginable two decades ago. 

More so than anywhere else, this phenomenon is visible through the emergence of the platform-based gig economy. This relatively new industry exemplifies many of the challenges endemic to the new forms of labour that have been enabled by technological proliferation. 

Though much needs to be done to ensure workers are treated fairly in the new digital economy, the Fairwork project of the Oxford Internet Institute offers prospects of reshaping the new labour relationship so that the ecosystem is sustainable for both the platforms and gig workers. 

Fairwork has created a standardised framework for evaluating platforms globally and over the past years has produced localised reports on the gig economy of many different countries. Currently, Fairwork is working to publish annual reports for more than 20 countries.

Over the past decade, Bangladesh has experienced an online freelancing boom and is the world’s second-largest supplier of online labour, with over half a million active freelancers. The proliferation of Bangladesh’s digital infrastructure enabled the platform economy to rapidly expand over the past years, both in terms of the number of platforms and the number of total customers. 

Many workers, who work through these platforms are considered to be “independent contractors”, rather than being recognised as the employees of these companies. As the labour laws in most countries are not equipped to deal with this sort of work arrangement, these independent contractors are often not protected, even though most of them work full time on these platforms. 

Read the full article at: https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/gig-economy-bangladesh-challenges-and-paths-fairer-platforms-333361