Informality and Platform-Mediated Ground Workers: A MENA Conversation

Despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,, it has also catalyzed the digital transformation of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, accelerating the growth of digitally enabled businesses. With 70 million platform workers registered globally, economists predict that by 2025, platform work will mediate one-third of all labor transactions, a wave that is slowly making its way into the MENA region. However, it is important to note that platform work is often characterized by informality. As a result, platform workers are not covered by formal labor laws and protections, presenting both challenges and opportunities for economic development and social inclusion.

Building on the Global Fairness Initiative and Tunisia Inclusive Labor Institute programs in Tunisia and Africa, with the generous support of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the American University in Cairo’s School of Business, The Tunisian Inclusive Labour Institute held the “Rethinking Informality: Regional Conference”, on September 10, 2024 to disseminate research findings and programs on empowering informal workers.

Dr. Nagla Rizk, A2K4D’s founding director, participated in the third panel, “New Forms of Work: Platform Economy and Informality,” to share A2K4D’s research findings from the Egypt case study undertaken as part of the “New Work, Data, and Inclusion in the Digital Economy: A MENA Perspective,” funded by the Ford Foundation. The panel was moderated by Mr. Wassim Belarbi and included three other speakers: Mr. Tarek Lamouchi from TILI in Tunisia, Mr. Morad Kotkot from the Phenix Center in Jordan, and Mr. Sami Zoughaib from the Policy Initiative in Lebanon.

At the outset of the discussion, Mr. Tarek Lamouchi highlighted the need to distinguish between “Platform-Mediated Ground Work” (PMGW) and “Cloud-Based Work” and noted that their research was primarily focused on PMGW. In a bid to provide a unified definition of PMGW, Dr. Rizk suggested adopting Eric Tucker’s definition of PMGW as “the provision of local services such as transportation and food delivery to consumers.” The panelists agreed on the need to understand the challenges and opportunities that shape the experiences of PMGW workers with the purpose of providing policy recommendations to help chart the path toward fairer working conditions.

Indeed, it is critical for representatives from civil society, company managers, academics, policymakers, and workers to work collectively to understand the challenges that shape the experiences of ground workers and effectively navigate this “new phenomenon” taking hold in the MENA region. One important interjection from Dr. Rizk was her advocacy for gathering data linked to platform workers, who are often excluded from the national data landscape. She noted that, “If you are invisible in data, you are invisible in policymaking.”

Overall, the panelists expressed similar concerns over the conditions faced by ride-hailing and delivery workers, which can be summarized into the following categories: wages and working hours, access to health insurance and social benefits, safety measures, and the availability of representative bodies.

For starters, while most panelists reported that PMGW workers received monthly earnings that were often higher than the national minimum wage, they also worked longer hours on average. PMGW work was also reported as their sole source of income. They lack access to sick leave or holiday pay. More critically, due to the increasing economic hardships spreading across the MENA region, many workers expressed their concerns about their ability to feed their families, noting that their work on platforms is their sole source of income. Dr. Rizk noted that in Egypt, many workers resorted to informal financial networks or money-lending circles, known as gameya.

Mr. Sami Zoughaib from the Policy Initiative in Lebanon noted that, because PMGW workers are often classified as “self-employed,” their legal status limits their access to health insurance and social protection measures. He made the critical interjection that the platform economy in general is marked by “irregularity” in addition to “informality.” Commenting on the situation in Jordan, Mr. Morad Kotkot from the Phenix Center noted that many of these workers had no fixed wage, no job security, and in some cases, drivers might find themselves blocked from accessing the application if a customer reports them frequently, often without a conversation with the driver.

Reflecting on the situation in Lebanon, Zoughaib noted that the status of workers as full-time employees as opposed to part-time freelancers is linked to the existence, or lack thereof, of a relationship of subordination between the corporation and the workers. He argued, “If the corporation has the ability to exert control over the workers, then PMGW should be defined as workers.” What makes matters more complicated is the fact that all the panelists reported an inability for groups of workers to form syndicates or unions.

Adding a gendered lens to the conversation, Mr. Kotkot noted that women face additional challenges. He said, “Because Jordanian society would be unwelcoming to the idea of a woman working as a ground worker, and because women are more likely to be exposed to gender-based violence, the research study found that ground workers were predominantly male.” Building on this thought, Dr. Rizk noted that due to women’s traditional ties to care work and their limited ability to clock in as many hours as their male counterparts, they often face “algorithmic bias that makes them less likely to receive bonuses.” Furthermore, it is worth noting that there are several areas around Egypt with poor network connection, increasing the risk of road safety, particularly for women.

While many development experts have argued that one of the benefits of PMGW is its “flexibility,” the realities on the ground reveal that the benefits of “flexibility” are often a myth. Indeed, as Dr. Nagla put it, “describing this work as flexible is dehumanizing.” We must rectify the power asymmetry between workers and corporations to ensure that the digital economy offers men and women a sustainable and fair source of livelihood.

As part of the New Work, Data and Inclusion project, case studies were conducted across five countries in the MENA region: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. The case studies investigated the state of PMGW in all five countries, and the state of PMCW in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. They will soon be available on the MENA AI Observatory.

Watch the full conference here!

Written by: Nur El-Mahrakawy Nur?El-Mahrakawy?is a feminist activist and currently serves as the Communications and Digital Content Consultant at Access to Knowledge for Development.?Nur?was awarded a distinction in her MSc in Labour, Social Movements, and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies and also holds a BA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo. Her research interests include labor movements, post-colonial theories, and intersectional feminist movements in the Middle East.?Nur?is a firm believer in the power of storytelling and activism to lead the movement for progressive change.