Your Uber driver is part of the tech economy, too
Critic says tech giants are disrupting workers' labour rights
No longer a luxury, online conveniences like food delivery apps and car sharing are the new norm that have tech giants competing to win consumers over with "hassle-free" services.
But behind Amazon, Uber, and other convenient-based apps, are workers at facility warehouses packing our items, making sure they arrive to our doorsteps on time, and contract drivers with very little liability insurance from their boss.
It is this demand to perform efficiently and provide exceptional service under a great deal of pressure that dehumanises employees of online tech platforms, activists argue.
Saadia Muzaffar is the founder of Tech Girls Can, and co-founder of Tech Reset Canada. She argues that tech giants are causing the disruption of labour rights for overworked employees.
"There is an intentional and by design invisibility that's been created by online platforms for these workers because we don't see them," Muzaffar told Spark host Nora Young.
Muzaffar talked about the ways that tech work has created an invisible divide between workers and consumers at a Walrus talk last month.
I think there's a level of isolation that is purposefully designed because these services can easily provide a messaging service where workers can talk to each other but they don't. And they don't because they don't... want that hassle.- Saadia Muzaffar
"There's a lot of surveillance, because you're told exactly what to do. Where to turn, which shelf to pick up the box from, and there's an element of deskilling," Muzaffar said. "Which means that when an algorithm is literally responsible for your every step there is a kind of mental atrophy."
It is this sort of new disconnect between employees and employers that is causing the disruption that maintains labour injustices, Muzaffar said.
"I think there's a level of isolation that is purposefully designed because these services can easily provide a messaging service where workers can talk to each other but they don't. And they don't because they don't... want that hassle."
Her solution is simple: "I would like for — us and by us I mean the public discourse — to shift into thinking about these things as choice. Who gets to disrupt? Who gets to break things? And who has the responsibility to clean up that mess?"