A coalition of 12 organisations is calling on online delivery platforms Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats to ensure fair treatment of their employees and to enhance clarity regarding the algorithms that govern their operations.
The collective demand to reveal how pay and job decisions are made follows as food and grocery delivery workers in the UK face “black-box” algorithm decisions with no transparency or accountability.
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Privacy International, the Trades Union Congress and Amnesty International are among those advocating for the disclosure of the algorithms that dictate the livelihoods of more than 100,000 couriers in a move that could have significant implications for the gig economy.
UberEats, Deliveroo and JustEat together dominate the UK and Ireland’s takeaway delivery market with close to £9bn in combined annual revenue.
Just Eat alone handles 4.7 million meal and grocery deliveries each week through its network of 88,000 couriers, according to a report from the Guardian.
An open letter outlines the coalition’s position, accusing delivery companies of using opaque algorithms to control deactivation, work allocation and compensation without adequate transparency or recourse for workers.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the coalition, the prevalent use of algorithmic management in the gig economy mandates that workers relinquish considerable personal information as a condition of employment. The outcomes generated by such algorithms can have significant impacts, influencing earnings and potentially leading to the suspension or termination of workers’ accounts.
There is often a deficit in clear communication about how these algorithmic decisions are reached. The opaque nature of these processes poses a challenge for workers seeking to understand or contest these decisions.
The coalition’s demands are threefold: firstly, it calls for the establishment of a public register documenting the algorithms used to manage workers; secondly, it requests that each algorithmic decision be accompanied by a clear rationale and information on how they can be contested; thirdly, it requests the empowerment of workers, their representatives and public interest groups with the ability to audit algorithmic operations.
These demands resonate with broader calls for accountability in AI systems within the public sector, including areas such as welfare administration.
The implicated companies maintain that they do provide necessary information to their couriers, but Privacy International legal officer Jonah Mendelsohn contends that expecting workers to navigate these systems without full understanding is unjustified.
Mendelsohn was quoted by the publication as saying: “Too often workers are left in the dark about the reasons why they have been fired, underpaid, or that they’ve been discriminated against as more and more decisions impacting them are made by algorithms.
“At a time when AI governance is under global scrutiny, from new EU legislation to the UK’s commitment for public authorities to publish details about their algorithms, it’s time that these gig economy platforms catch up and deliver answers.”
