Beyond Digital Flexibility Standing’s Labor Securities Framework and the Precarious Lives of Migrant Food Delivery Couriers in Johannesburg
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This qualitative study explores the experiences of food-delivery couriers employed by UberEats, MrDFood and BoltFood in Johannesburg, South Africa. Through in-depth interviews with Black African male migrant food delivery couriers from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Uganda, the study investigates the opportunities, challenges and coping strategies characterising their work in the gig economy. Key findings reveal increased earning potential, multiple job opportunities and flexible schedules as the main benefits. However, food delivery couriers also experience challenges including crime and safety risks, lack of fringe benefits, customer harassment, and rising petrol and data costs. To cope with these challenges, food delivery couriers utilise several individual strategies such as WhatsApp support groups and networks to help them with job-related challenges. The article concludes with several interventions to policy change to improve the working conditions of food delivery couriers.
Referencias
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Alalwan, A.A. (2020). Mobile food ordering apps: An empirical study of the factors affecting customer e-satisfaction and continued intention to reuse. International Journal of Information Management, 50, 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.04.008
Anwar, M.A. & Graham, M. (2020). Hidden transcripts of the gig economy: Labour agency and the new art of resistance among African gig workers. EPA: Economy and Space, 52(7), 1269-1291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19894584
Bannor, R.K. & Amponsah, J. (2024). The emergence of food delivery in Africa: A systematic review. Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship, 3(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stae.2023.100062
Cameron, L.D. (2022). Making out while driving: Relational and efficiency games in the gig economy. Organization Science, 33(1), 231–252. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1547
Cameron, L.D. (2024). The making of the good bad job: how algorithmic management manufactures consent through constant and confined choices. Administrative Science Quarterly, 69(2), 458-514. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392241236163
Cano, M.R., Espelt, R. and Morell, M.F. (2021). Flexibility and freedom for whom? Precarity, freedom and flexibility in on-demand food delivery. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 15(1), 46-68. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0046
Cant, C. (2019). Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the new economy. London: Cambridge: Polity Press.
Carmody, P. & Fortuin, A. (2019). Ride-sharing, virtual capital and impacts on labour in Cape Town, South Africa. American Geographical Review, 38(3), 196-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2019.1607149
Chai, L.T. & Yat, D.N.C. (2019). Online food delivery services: Making food delivery the new normal. Journal of Marketing Advances and Practices, 1(1), 62-77
Charlton, E. (2021). What is the gig economy and what’s the deal for gig workers? In World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/what-gig-economy-workers/ [Accessed on 20 June 2023]
Christie, N. & Ward, H. (2018). The emerging issues for management of occupational road risk in a changing economy: A survey of gig economy drivers, riders and their managers. London: UCL Centre for Transport Studies.
Duggan, J. Sherman, U. Carbery, R. & McDonnell, A. (2020). Algorithmic management and app-work in the gig economy: A research agenda for employment relations and HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), 114-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12258
Du Toit, D. (2012) Beyond the smile and wave of petrol attendants: A case study on male petrol attendants’ use of emotional labour. South African Review of Sociology, 43(3), 129-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2012.727558
Elsley, T. & Snyman, S. (2023). Location-based platform work in South Africa: Mapping the prospects for organising. Research Report, Labour Research Service, Cape Town: Solidarity Center.
Goods, C. Veen, A. & Barratt, T. (2019). “Is your gig any good?”: Analysing job quality in the Australian platform-based food-delivery sector. Journal of Industrial Relations, 61(4), 502-527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185618817069
Heiland, H. (2022). Neither timeless, nor placeless: Control of food-delivery gig work via place-based working Time Regimes. Human Relations, 75(9), 1824-1848. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211025283
Henama, U.S. & Sifolo, P.P.S. (2017). Uber: The South Africa experience. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 6(2), 1-10.
Johnson, C. Dunn, M. & van Vuuren, P. (2020). Digital platforms’ role in African digitisation and gig work on the back of COVID-19. Available Online: https://cenfri.org/articles/digital-platforms-role-in-african-digitisation-and-gig-work-on-the-back-of-covid-19/.
Katz, C. (2004). Growing up Global: Economic Restructuring and Children’s Everyday Lives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kavese, K. Mbali. A. & Anyikwa, I. (2022). The gig economy, digital labour platforms, and independent employment in the Eastern Cape. Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council.
Kute, S.W. (2017). The Sharing Economy in the Global South: Uber’s Precarious Labour Force in Johannesburg. Unpublished Master’s thesis. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Lata L.N. Burdon, J. & Reddel, T. (2022). New tech, old exploitation: Gig economy, algorithmic control, and migrant labour. Sociology Compass 17(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13028
Masuku, B. (2023). Questioning governance of urban informality: A study of township economy in Alexandra, Johannesburg. Journal of Foresight and Thought Leadership, 2(1), 1- 14. https://doi.org/10.4102/joftl.v2i1.20
Moroane, K. (2023). Worker agency in the gig-economy: the case of food delivery gig workers in Rustenburg, South Africa. Unpublished MA dissertation. Sol Plaatje University.
Munday, M. & Humbani, M. (2024). Determining the drivers of continued mobile food delivery app (MFDA) usage during a pandemic period. Cogent Business & Management, 11(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2308086
Nhleko, T. (2023). The ‘platformisation’ of domestic work in South Africa: A shift towards marginal formalisation and deepening informalisation of domestic work employment. The Thinker, 96(3), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2678
Prassl, J. (2018). Humans as a service: The promise and perils of work in the gig economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198797012.001.0001
Rani, U. & Furrer, M. (2021). Digital labour platforms and new forms of flexible work in developing countries: Algorithmic management of work and workers. Competition & Change, 25(2), 212-236. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529420905187
Shibata, S. (2019). Gig work and the discourse of autonomy: Fictitious freedom in Japan’s digital economy. New Political Economy, 25(4), 535–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2019.1613351
Sibiya, W. & du Toit, D. (2022). Sweeping up decent work: Paid domestic work and digital platforms in South Africa. Gender & Development, 30(3):637-654. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2126199
Standing, G. (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781849664554
Sun, P. Yujie Chen, J. & Rani, U. (2023). From flexible labour to ‘sticky labour’: a tracking study of workers in the food-delivery platform economy of China. Work, Employment and Society, 37(2), 412-431. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211021570
Veen, A. Barratt, T. & Goods, C. (2020). Platform-capital appetite for control: A labor process analysis of food delivery work in Australia. Work, Employment and Society, 34, 388-406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019836911
Webster, E. & Masikane, F. (2021). “I just want to survive”: a comparative study of food courier riders in three African cities. Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. Available online: https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/commerce-law-and-management/research-entities/scis/documents/I_just_want_to_survive.pdf
Webster, E. (2020). The uberisation of work: The challenge of regulating platform capitalism. A commentary. International Review of Applied Economics, 34(4), 512-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2020.1773647
Woodcock, J. & Graham, M. (2020). The gig economy: A critical introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Alalwan, A.A. (2020). Mobile food ordering apps: An empirical study of the factors affecting customer e-satisfaction and continued intention to reuse. International Journal of Information Management, 50, 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.04.008
Anwar, M.A. & Graham, M. (2020). Hidden transcripts of the gig economy: Labour agency and the new art of resistance among African gig workers. EPA: Economy and Space, 52(7), 1269-1291. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19894584
Bannor, R.K. & Amponsah, J. (2024). The emergence of food delivery in Africa: A systematic review. Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship, 3(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stae.2023.100062
Cameron, L.D. (2022). Making out while driving: Relational and efficiency games in the gig economy. Organization Science, 33(1), 231–252. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1547
Cameron, L.D. (2024). The making of the good bad job: how algorithmic management manufactures consent through constant and confined choices. Administrative Science Quarterly, 69(2), 458-514. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392241236163
Cano, M.R., Espelt, R. and Morell, M.F. (2021). Flexibility and freedom for whom? Precarity, freedom and flexibility in on-demand food delivery. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 15(1), 46-68. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0046
Cant, C. (2019). Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the new economy. London: Cambridge: Polity Press.
Carmody, P. & Fortuin, A. (2019). Ride-sharing, virtual capital and impacts on labour in Cape Town, South Africa. American Geographical Review, 38(3), 196-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2019.1607149
Chai, L.T. & Yat, D.N.C. (2019). Online food delivery services: Making food delivery the new normal. Journal of Marketing Advances and Practices, 1(1), 62-77
Charlton, E. (2021). What is the gig economy and what’s the deal for gig workers? In World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/what-gig-economy-workers/ [Accessed on 20 June 2023]
Christie, N. & Ward, H. (2018). The emerging issues for management of occupational road risk in a changing economy: A survey of gig economy drivers, riders and their managers. London: UCL Centre for Transport Studies.
Duggan, J. Sherman, U. Carbery, R. & McDonnell, A. (2020). Algorithmic management and app-work in the gig economy: A research agenda for employment relations and HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), 114-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12258
Du Toit, D. (2012) Beyond the smile and wave of petrol attendants: A case study on male petrol attendants’ use of emotional labour. South African Review of Sociology, 43(3), 129-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2012.727558
Elsley, T. & Snyman, S. (2023). Location-based platform work in South Africa: Mapping the prospects for organising. Research Report, Labour Research Service, Cape Town: Solidarity Center.
Goods, C. Veen, A. & Barratt, T. (2019). “Is your gig any good?”: Analysing job quality in the Australian platform-based food-delivery sector. Journal of Industrial Relations, 61(4), 502-527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185618817069
Heiland, H. (2022). Neither timeless, nor placeless: Control of food-delivery gig work via place-based working Time Regimes. Human Relations, 75(9), 1824-1848. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211025283
Henama, U.S. & Sifolo, P.P.S. (2017). Uber: The South Africa experience. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 6(2), 1-10.
Johnson, C. Dunn, M. & van Vuuren, P. (2020). Digital platforms’ role in African digitisation and gig work on the back of COVID-19. Available Online: https://cenfri.org/articles/digital-platforms-role-in-african-digitisation-and-gig-work-on-the-back-of-covid-19/.
Katz, C. (2004). Growing up Global: Economic Restructuring and Children’s Everyday Lives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kavese, K. Mbali. A. & Anyikwa, I. (2022). The gig economy, digital labour platforms, and independent employment in the Eastern Cape. Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council.
Kute, S.W. (2017). The Sharing Economy in the Global South: Uber’s Precarious Labour Force in Johannesburg. Unpublished Master’s thesis. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Lata L.N. Burdon, J. & Reddel, T. (2022). New tech, old exploitation: Gig economy, algorithmic control, and migrant labour. Sociology Compass 17(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13028
Masuku, B. (2023). Questioning governance of urban informality: A study of township economy in Alexandra, Johannesburg. Journal of Foresight and Thought Leadership, 2(1), 1- 14. https://doi.org/10.4102/joftl.v2i1.20
Moroane, K. (2023). Worker agency in the gig-economy: the case of food delivery gig workers in Rustenburg, South Africa. Unpublished MA dissertation. Sol Plaatje University.
Munday, M. & Humbani, M. (2024). Determining the drivers of continued mobile food delivery app (MFDA) usage during a pandemic period. Cogent Business & Management, 11(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2308086
Nhleko, T. (2023). The ‘platformisation’ of domestic work in South Africa: A shift towards marginal formalisation and deepening informalisation of domestic work employment. The Thinker, 96(3), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2678
Prassl, J. (2018). Humans as a service: The promise and perils of work in the gig economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198797012.001.0001
Rani, U. & Furrer, M. (2021). Digital labour platforms and new forms of flexible work in developing countries: Algorithmic management of work and workers. Competition & Change, 25(2), 212-236. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529420905187
Shibata, S. (2019). Gig work and the discourse of autonomy: Fictitious freedom in Japan’s digital economy. New Political Economy, 25(4), 535–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2019.1613351
Sibiya, W. & du Toit, D. (2022). Sweeping up decent work: Paid domestic work and digital platforms in South Africa. Gender & Development, 30(3):637-654. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2126199
Standing, G. (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781849664554
Sun, P. Yujie Chen, J. & Rani, U. (2023). From flexible labour to ‘sticky labour’: a tracking study of workers in the food-delivery platform economy of China. Work, Employment and Society, 37(2), 412-431. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211021570
Veen, A. Barratt, T. & Goods, C. (2020). Platform-capital appetite for control: A labor process analysis of food delivery work in Australia. Work, Employment and Society, 34, 388-406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019836911
Webster, E. & Masikane, F. (2021). “I just want to survive”: a comparative study of food courier riders in three African cities. Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. Available online: https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/commerce-law-and-management/research-entities/scis/documents/I_just_want_to_survive.pdf
Webster, E. (2020). The uberisation of work: The challenge of regulating platform capitalism. A commentary. International Review of Applied Economics, 34(4), 512-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2020.1773647
Woodcock, J. & Graham, M. (2020). The gig economy: A critical introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
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Dec 16, 2024
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Beyond Digital Flexibility: Standing’s Labor Securities Framework and the Precarious Lives of Migrant Food Delivery Couriers in Johannesburg. (2024). Revista De sociología clínica, 19(2), 106-133. https://doi.org/10.36615/hyf6ea64
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Beyond Digital Flexibility: Standing’s Labor Securities Framework and the Precarious Lives of Migrant Food Delivery Couriers in Johannesburg. (2024). Revista De sociología clínica, 19(2), 106-133. https://doi.org/10.36615/hyf6ea64