The digital economy (e.g. online shopping) is growing rapidly - already £50bn in 2016 - this has been especially true during COVID, with a growth of online retail of over 30% this year alone. With new `try before you by' clothing services such as ASOS and Amazon Prime Wardrobe, where any number of clothing items can be ordered for home delivery, and returned 'for free', the true environmental costs and impacts on workers are entirely hidden from the consumer. These services have heralded the growth of the platform economy, where an army of gig workers compete for highly variable rewards, and bear many of the infrastructure costs that once would've once belonged to an employer. In the flipgig project, we are looking at the role of digital services in this growing workplace and how these can be better designed to empower couriers to fight unfairness, challenge unfair models and algorithms in platform courier work, and develop new models that put fairness and sustainability at the core. In this talk we report on our fieldwork and give a voice to gig economy workers, identifying multiple forms of systemic and unintentional bias arising from being 'behind the app'.

1. Behind the app: perspectives on fairness
and sustainability from the gig economy
+ Oliver Bates and Carolynne Lord (Lancaster); Tom Cherrett, Fraser McLeod and
Andy Oakey (Transportation Research/ U. Southampton); Antonio Martinez-Sykora
Southampton Business School; Ben Kirman (York)
Adrian Friday
Prof. of Computing and Sustainability, Lancaster University, UK

2. Thanks for the cash EPSRC!
http://www.flipgig.org, FlipGig (2019-2021) EPSRC
grant agreement no. EP/S027726/1
FlipGig has collaborated on fieldwork with the
pilot project Switch-Gig funded by the EPSRC
Network+ Not-Equal (EP/R044929/1).

3. Why should
Computer
Science
research
care?
• Our systems are at the scale they have
impact on the world
• And the workers are implicated behind
the app screen
• Clean interfaces and intuitive UX design
hide ‘how this happens’ and ‘what it’s like
to work behind the app’
Image: unsplash/charles-deluvio-6g7K1idhMJw

4. Questions
How fair and sustainable is the gig economy?
Do emergent properties and algorithmic biases lead
to unfairness and injustice?
Are there systemic factors that drive us towards or
away from environmental sustainability?
How could these platforms offer more socially,
environmentally and financially sustainable work?

5. Food Freedom
• Deliveroo's mission is to become the definitive food
company. It's this ambitious goal that fuels constant
innovation within our company; offering new and
exciting selection to our hungry customers while being
able to offer our riders flexible work and ongoing
support to the Australian restaurant industry. [link]
https://foodscene.deliveroo.com.au/restaurant-profiles/australia-launches-food-freedom.html

6. https://riders.deliveroo.co.uk/en/apply

7. What is the gig
economy?
1. Workers in the gig economy
commonly take on work that
is mediated through digital
platforms
2. Platforms match workers and
clients in the performance of
short-term or individual
tasks, colloquially known as
‘gigs’ (Woodcock and
Graham, 2019)
3. Pay is linked to the number
of ’gigs’ completed
Image: unsplash/mak-1uDgb-65_28

8. Why are gig
workers
attractive to
businesses?
• “Independent contractors” are
effectively self-employed and are
not ‘company assets’
• Are ‘on demand’ labour
• Workers own their own
infrastructure (e.g.
transport, maintenance
costs, insurance)
• Pay no benefits such as
holiday, sick pay,
maternity/paternity leave,
pension
• Are self-employed for tax
purposes
• Make a healthy commission
(Deliveroo take 35%, (Shead,
2020))
• Plus get to monetise all that
yummy data!

9. Digitisation
• This form of working has expanded
greatly
• Now an estimated 50 million gig
working platform workers worldwide
(Fairwork, 2020)
• An estimated 4.7 million in the UK
(9.6% of working-age adults)
• Increased 100% over the last three
years (TUC, 2019)
• This is more than food, also
babysitting, graphic design and
cleaning services
• COVID has led to a digital
transformation with a 30% increase in
online shopping

10. Dynamic
human
infrastructure
• Then there’s all
that ‘trip
generation’
• Different modes
of transport have
different
environmental
impacts
• Congest our cities
• Cause pollution
• Or, could help
ease these
impacts by
‘reshaping civic
infrastructure’
Images: unsplash/stephan-schmid-0MtjR0BvV6A/eggbank-4w3UZBFDacI

11. The ‘brass
tally men’
Image: http://www.thamesdockers.org.uk

12. https://bfaglobal.com/covid-19/insights/gig-workers-have-powered-wuhans-response-to-covid-19/

13. Who does gig work?
• This varies, but noted French authority Laetitia Dablanc’s survey
of gig workers in Paris (Dablanc 2020)
– More than ‘a convenient top up’, 73% full time gig workers
– 2% female; 14% French; 9% students
– 31% use a scooter (although this isn’t legal!)
– 16% use shared bikes
– 10% e-bikes

14. Enquiry 1 –
Cycle
courier
workshops
• Switch-Gig funded by the EPSRC
Network+ Not-Equal
(EP/R044929/1) - workshops in
Manchester and York with 8
cycle couriers
• All participants were male
• 20-30 years of age
• 7 white
• 7 native English speakers
• 3 were students
• Several riders dropped out
(including two female riders)
due to concerns over COVID-
19 and travelling to and
attending the workshop
from Scotland

15. Why do
people do gig
work?
• Love of cycling (50 miles a
day is common)
• Can do better than basic
living wage (some earn
£15ph vs. £8.21)
• Mixture of money,
adrenaline and endorphins
• Contrast with Paris where
easy access to work for
immigrants
Image: https://www.facebook.com/yorkcollective/

16. A day in the
life of a gig
worker
1
Commute
into
zone
2
Wait
for
job
3
Accept
job
4
Go
to
restaurant
5
Wait
for
food
6
Travel
to
customer
7
Deliver

17. Pay
Waiting &
travelling to the
next pickup =
Unpaid time
Delivering = Paid
time
Image: unsplash/matheus-bardemaker-RwoXb6lk7rA

18. Being
successful,
taking risks
• Tacit knowledge, second guessing the
algorithms
• Going where other vehicles shouldn’t
• Taking risks daily (c.f. Gregory, 2020)
• Knowing which job not to accept

19. Work as a
game?
• Unlike “real” independent
contractors, earnings depend
on the availability of sufficient
work
• Pay and reward is linked to the
balance between urgency,
available work, available
workers
• Peak and super peak times
• Refusing a job, can ‘encourage’
the reward to increase

20. Enquiry 2 -
Understanding
unfairness
• Adapted the ‘Critical Incident Technique’ to
reach this hard to reach population
• CIT normally probes problems with the flow in
user interactions with a UI
• Here adapted to focus on challenges faced
‘behind the app’
• Snowball sampling, n=26 so far
• Responses broader than just the algorithm:

21. Enquiry 2 - Understanding unfairness

22. The
importance
of data
RATINGS,
REPUTATION
CUSTOMER
REPORTS
HIDDEN
METRICS

23. A variable
slice of a
variable
sized pie
• The amount of work is ‘on
demand’ and shared by those it’s
offered to
• Theories, but lack of transparency
about who ‘gets the gig’
• “Having free login for all riders
means sometimes I'm working but
I don't earn very much or even
nothing at all. This was especially
a problem during lockdown. I
would log in for 60+ hours but still
barely make £100. Uber did
nothing to support riders during
this time even though they pushed
for us to be classed as
keyworkers.” P3
Image: unsplash/alex-loup-aX_ljOOyWJY

24. Transparency and accountability
• “Restaurant’s are disrespectful and can have
huge waiting times they have waiting times
because the prioritise their own customers
over third party apps. Restaurant’s are
disrespectful due to the odd rotten egg in
our chain and because support lines don’t
help them out. Customers can be aggressive
when food is late this isn’t our fault it’s the
staff at the restaurants fault, I’ve had pizza,
pasta thrown in my face.” P9

25. Your future as
a beta test
• “I have worked with deliveroo for 3
years and within my first year they
terminated my contract due to
rejecting jobs which were too far
and as I was on an hourly rate of £6
plus £1 per delivery and considered
traveling these 1.5 miles plus
distances not worthwhile the time
and risk.”
• “now conscious not to get fired
again so I have to only reject jobs
under dire circumstances
regardless if I'm getting paid less
than £5 for doing a 4 mile trip for
instance or if the route is unsafe for
bikes” P26

26. Modality
and
externality
• ”Deliveroo systematically
deprioritised cyclists last year
and made it far harder for us to
be assigned orders or book
shifts to work at all (when they
used to have a booking
system)” P21
Image: unsplash/carl-campbell-NHv_7hIxJWQ

27. Customers
play too
• “I had a customer enter an
incorrect address which didn't exist.
When I called the customer to find
out where I should take the food he
asked me to deliver to an address
outside my zone of work on a high-
rise housing estate I don't know
well and did not feel comfortable
entering. I told him I was cancelling
the order. I was really frustrated by
the loss of time as I was not paid
for this, and Deliveroo made me
return the food to the restaurant.”
P4

28. Beatings and ratings
• “I was riding my motorbike down a quiet street on a Friday night, 2
drunken men tried to pull me off my motorbike and were grabbing me. I
managed to ride off but the experience terrified me. They told me the
next day I would lose all my bonuses for the week if I didn't work my
slots.” P14
• Female riders have experienced sexual harassment from customers

29. Game over
• “I have worked during
lockdown I am with Deliveroo
for over 2y We face bike thiefs
every week and police dont
have any action Deliveroo
increased the drivers and
decreased our fees. The
government support its based
in 2018 and i just started in
October so my help was 600£
for 3 months. To finish in great
Deliveroo suspended my
account argument i was taking
long time. They ignored me, my
union and local MP when asked
for evidence of that.” P15
Image: unsplash/sigmund-By-tZImt0Ms

30. Burden of proof
• Little visibility or accountability when
unfairness occurs
• Algorithmic justice is swift
• Termination of an account results in a loss of
access to data helpful to support a case
• “The order was then removed from my app. I
was told by Rider Support I would still be paid
for the order but needed to send an email to
request this. I then sent an email to Deliveroo
requesting to be paid for this. They refused to
pay because I did not swipe "delivered". I was
unable to swipe "delivered" due to the order
being removed from my app at the time.
Deliveroo kept claiming that their "order
tracker" did not place my location anywhere
near the customer and this is why they were
refusing to pay. Luckily I record every shift
with Strava and I also took a photo of the
order, with location services on.” P1

31. Sustainability?
Is this work socially
sustainable?
Is this ‘good work’?
Is this work
environmentally
sustainable?

32. Impacts of the technology
Disruptive digital
technologies are
changing when
and where people
work
The granularity of
what is paid work
The increased
‘outsourcing’ of
costs and ‘what’s
regarded as
overheads’
Minimising the
burden on the
employer to pay
the worker or
towards the
broader
infrastructure
Asks broad
questions about
what is acceptable
employment

33. Environmentally this is a complex question
Journey and
transport
modality,
could inc.
embodied
CO2
Carbon
intensity of
ingredients
and of
cooking it,
packaging
Length of
supply chains
and
transportation
modalities and
costs
Seasonality
of ‘diet
choice’ (hot
houses,
transport)

34. Gig workers’
voice
• Gig economy workers are independent
actors, subservient to the ‘platform’ –
their voice is missing from the design
of these systems
• The platform is continually changing
under them
• No safety net
• Little being done to keep workers safe
or ensure that there is sufficient work
• The workers are not a stakeholder
conspicuously visible to the platform
or the customer, except when things
go wrong!

35. Could
we
help?
1. Ensure algorithms factor in
fair pay and conditions?
2. Transparency and attribution
of hidden actors (e.g.
restaurant delays) or
externalities
3. Better tools to keep workers
safe, and reduce the need for
risk taking
4. Tools to enable reflection
over true costs of gig work
5. Provide better evidence sets
for arguing for workers rights
6. More primary data of ’the
ground truth’ experience,
especially to help shape civic
infrastructures and policies;
expose these issues further
7. Promoting community and
mutual support

36. Power and
empowerment
• On Valentines Day
2019, Wagamama was
boycotted for 3 hours
during their evening
peak. The action was
coordinated in York,
with riders
congregated outside
the restaurant and
sharing the terms of
the strike

37. Empowering Turkers (Irani et al., 2013)
https://turkopticon.ucsd.edu

38. Is this the
future of
work?
Call to action
Responsible
innovation in system
and UI design
Drones and
autonomous vehicles

39. • My thanks to Oliver Bates, Carolynne Lord (Lancaster), Ben
Kirman (York), Tom Cherrett, Toni Martinez-Sykora, Fraser
McLeod and Andy Oakey (Southampton)
• a.friday@Lancaster.ac.uk
• @gulliblefish
• http://flipgig.org and http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/sds
Image: unsplash/jon-tyson-hhq1Lxtuwd8