Dr Kelle Howson

News

• New Oxford report shows freelance and microwork platforms fail to provide minimum fairness standards for their global workforce 

  15 June 2021

  Millions of people across the world now work remotely for freelance and microwork platforms, creating a largely invisible workforce, often based in low-income countries, that offer outsourcing services to international clients and help power AI systems. 

• Uber’s Call for Change in Europe Shirks Responsibility while Highlighting Real Challenges say Fairwork researchers

  17 February 2021

  The Fairwork project based at the University of Oxford says Uber’s recent white paper on the regulation of gig work in Europe downplays the responsibility of platforms to improve conditions under existing legal frameworks.

• Fairwork Foundation announces Code of Good Practice to protect gig workers in South Africa

  6 November 2020

  The Fairwork Foundation, in collaboration with researchers and legal academics from the Universities of the Western Cape, Oxford, Cape Town, and Manchester, is launching a new Code of Good Practice for platform workers in South Africa.

• Report finds gig workers are among the most vulnerable groups in South Africa’s Covid-19 crisis

  13 May 2020

  A research report released today shows that those working in South Africa’s gig economy are falling through the cracks of government and private sector responses to Covid-19.

• New report finds gig economy companies must do more to protect workers during COVID-19

  27 April 2020

  A new report has shone a light on the plight of some 50 million gig economy workers across the world since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• General Election outcome crucial for millions of gig workers

  4 December 2019

  Researchers from Oxford University say the 2019 General Election is a critical moment for the economic and social wellbeing of the millions of workers in the UK’s “gig economy”.

Events

• Unpaid Labour in the Platform Economy: A Typology of Wage Theft in the Digital Age

  28 October 2021

  This talk - in discussion with Dr Kelle Howson - explores the dual nature of unpaid labour in platform work.

• Fairwork Cloudwork Ratings 2021: Labour Standards in the Cloudwork Economy

  15 June 2021

  We would like to invite you to this one-hour-long webinar in which we will present the main findings of the report and discuss the labour conditions in the global cloudwork economy with a panel of distinguished experts.

Blog

• Uber forced to recognise its drivers as workers, but falls short of offering Fair Pay and Representation

  17 March 2021

  Authors: Srujana Katta, Pablo Aguera, Ahkil Kumar, Funda Ustek Spilda, Kelle Howson, Matthew Cole, Fabian Ferrari, Alessio Bertolini, David Sutcliffe, Mark Graham

  By Srujana Katta, Pablo Aguera, Akhil Kumar, Funda Ustek Spilda, Kelle Howson, Matthew Cole, Fabian Ferrari, Alessio Bertolini, David Sutcliffe, Mark Graham A month ...
  Read More Uber forced to recognise its drivers as workers, but falls short of offering Fair Pay and Representation

• Fairwork announces Voluntary Scoring

  14 May 2020

  Authors: Dr Funda Ustek-Spilda, Mark Graham, Fabian Ferrari, Adam Badger, Srujana Katta, Kelle Howson, Dr Alessio Bertolini

  Fairwork focuses on the major companies that use digital platforms to distribute piecemeal work to workers, in several countries. One of the questions we have been asked is whether platforms who are located outside our focus countries, or ...
  Read More Fairwork announces Voluntary Scoring

• Second round of Fairwork’s yearly platform ratings in South Africa launched!

  18 March 2020

  Author: Sara Spinks

  The Fairwork South Africa 2020 report highlights the precarious nature of work in the South African gig economy. This research is particularly timely in ...
  Read More Second round of Fairwork’s yearly platform ratings in South Africa launched!

• Uber and Deliveroo’s ‘charter of good work’ is nothing but fairwashing

  3 February 2020

  Authors: Kelle Howson, Srujana Katta, Funda Ustek-Spilda, Mark Graham

  Latest analysis on the gig economy from researchers Kelle Howson, Srujana Katta, Funda Ustek-Spilda and Professor Mark Graham,   The authors work at the ...
  Read More Uber and Deliveroo’s ‘charter of good work’ is nothing but fairwashing

Press

• At the whim of Amazon’ — after the pandemic, gig workers are getting organized

  21 July 2021 Politico

  
  

  The coronavirus pandemic may have caused the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression. And yet, for the gig workers that so many businesses and consumers have come to rely on, it’s also provided an impetus for a new, global rights movement.

• Fairwork reaction to Uber decision to classify drivers as ‘workers’

  18 March 2021 Sky News

  
  

  Listen to Fairwork researcher Dr Kelle Howson unpacking Uber's new policy for UK drivers on Sky News

• Uber UK unions battle over waiting times

  17 March 2021 Politico

  
  

  Unions welcomed Uber's move to introduce a minimum earnings guarantee for its U.K. drivers — but they're less happy on when the company thinks a driver's shift will start and end.

• Ben Wray – Uber drivers are workers from the moment they log-in, UK Supreme Court rules

  19 February 2021 Brave New Europe

  
  

  The legal verdicts against Uber and for workers are mounting up across Europe. Its business model may not be able to survive this.

• How is the platform economy responding to COVID-19?

  14 May 2020 Open Democracy

  
  

  Although there is little evidence of ‘disaster capitalism’, ‘compassionate capitalism’ has been in rather short supply.

• If platforms do not protect gig workers, who will?

  23 April 2020 New Internationalist

  
  

  Coronavirus is showing that precarity and dangerous working conditions are a choice companies have been making for workers, not a necessary payoff for flexibility and independence, say Fairwork researchers.

• From Social Distancing to Social Solidarity: Gig economy and the Covid-19

  27 March 2020 OECD Development Matters

  
  

  The risks faced by members of the gig economy during the Covid-19 outbreak.

• The politics of Covid-19: Gig work in the coronavirus crisis

  26 March 2020 red pepper

  
  

  How long are we willing to turn a blind eye to the vulnerabilities of essential workers on the bottom of the employment hierarchy, asks the Fairwork Foundation.

• SA gig economy report: The truth about working for Uber-like companies

  23 March 2020 Fast Company South Africa

  
  

  Accounts from gig economy workers in South Africa and how technology impacts their experiences.

• SA gig workers may be vital, and yet vulnerable, during the pandemic

  20 March 2020 Daily Maverick

  
  

  Gig workers make up about 1% of SA’s workforce and many people in self-isolation or quarantine may start leaning heavily on their services.

• Impact of Covid-19 on the gig economy

  20 March 2020 Cape Talk

  
  

  Guest: Dr Kelle Howson | Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute

• Gig workers are at the front line of pandemic

  19 March 2020 Mail & Guardian

  
  

  The coronavirus pandemic will affect the most vulnerable groups in our society. That includes those in casual or insecure employment who face loss of income or exposure to the virus, and so need greater protection by governments.

• COVID-19 brings into sharp relief the risks faced by gig workers

  19 March 2020 BBrief

  
  

  South Africa’s current national state of disaster, and the uncertainty that has gripped the world, will especially impact the most vulnerable groups in our society including gig economy workers.

• The Untenable Luxury of Self-isolation

  18 March 2020 New Internationalist

  
  

  A coalition of gig economy researchers at Fairwork explain how gig workers are being hit hardest by COVID-19.

• South Africa’s COVID-19 crisis brings gig economy workers into sharper focus

  18 March 2020 hypertext

  
  

  What is being done to protect gig economy workers in South Africa during the COVID-19 outbreak.

• Why you should start talking to your Uber driver

  1 March 2020 Daily Maverick

  
  

  Next time you take an Uber, consider sitting in the front seat and asking your driver some questions.

Integrity Statement

I am currently a researcher on the Fairwork Project, which is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Economic and Social Research Council through the Global Challenges Research Fund (ES/S00081X/1).  In the past five years, my work has been financially supported by New Zealand taxpayers, the New Zealand Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund, and the New Zealand Aid Programme.