Page 22 - Voice and representation of platform driver in VietNam

16 CHAPTER 3: Loyalty, exit or voice? Platform workers’ organising strategies

to non-economic topics including the interpretation Box 1: Unions’ Initiatives to Organise Gig Workers
of VAT regulations for platform companies (Decree
126/2020/ND-CP) and the establishment of a
employment relationship between platform and drivers/ Union-affiliated guilds 41
riders (see Picture 1 for an example). Although the
success rate of spontaneous bargaining efforts is low Union-affiliated guilds represent an avenue
(23 percent), the incidence of strikes has increased over for unions to form relationships with gig and
the past two years. Particularly, in the second half of platform-based workers. When conditions
2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, there were five change and formal union recognition becomes
strikes by thousands of ride-hailing and delivery bike- an option, the unions can mobilise members
riders. Apparently, unless an effective formal channel into a formal organising drive. An example is the
for dialogue and negotiation is provided, wildcat strikes Independent Drivers Guild (IDG, or ‘the Guild’),
will continue to be the way for platform workers to an affiliate of the International Association of
bargain with platforms in Vietnam. Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). IDG
asserts that it represents 50,000 New York City
Taxi and Limousine Commission-Licensed Uber
drivers (Independent Drivers Guild, 2017). IDG
was formed to help achieve wide-reaching
industry reforms and create opportunities
for dialogue between Uber drivers and the
corporation.

Work councils

In Austria, Foodora app-based delivery workers
recently joined together to form a work council
with the support of Vida, the Austrian union
representing workers in the transport and
services sector. Worker representatives in such
councils enjoy a wide variety of rights from
information, consultation and participation, to
special consultation rights in staff and economic
matters, as well as to collective bargaining of
work agreements.

Worker Centres
Over the past two decades, worker centres have
emerged as a new type of institution advocating
for worker rights, mainly in the United States.
Operating independently and often within a
limited geographical scope, they provide social
Picture 1: Petition by Grab bike-riders to the FOLs in Hanoi and services and labour resources to wage earners
HCMC demanding to sign labour contracts with all riders with more
than one month’s experience with the platform and the provision of in a variety of sectors, especially in sectors
social benefits where non-standard forms of employment
predominate and in industries where workers
3.4. Prospects for organising gig workers
face barriers to formal unionisation.
Unions around the world have made various attempts
to organise non-standard workers in the gig economy, Cooperatives
ranging from legal efforts to establish an employment
relationship between gig companies and workers to SMart, a Belgium-based cooperative operating
form union-like agencies such as guilds, work councils throughout Europe, has used its cooperatives
and worker centres (Box 1).

41 Guilds have existed for hundreds of years as an avenue for people to pursue mutual purpose. Occupational guilds, commonplace in pre-
industrial Europe, were organised by craft. Craftspeople, artisans, service providers, and manufacturers would join guilds for the purpose of
mutual aid. These member-driven associations were economically important, serving not only as platform for expressing collective voice but
also in securing market access for members and helping to formalise and professionalise work. That they have reemerged concurrently with
the growth of non-standard employment links to the historical fact that guild membership was reserved for artisans seeking to protect and
advance their interests in a context pre-dating the employer-employee relationship.

Voice and representation of platform drivers in Vietnam