Economics
Gig economy workers say they can no longer survive
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Whether in Paris, Kuala Lumpur or California, gig economy workers fear they can no longer survive on meagre earnings from jobs that leave them increasingly vulnerable.
The term “gig” stretches back a century to jazz musicians who used it to refer to a one-off show but now the “gig economy” involves millions of people in all sorts of jobs, from Uber drivers to Deliveroo delivery teams.
Algorithm slaves
Wissem Inal does more than 700 kilometres (450 miles) a week on his scooter, delivering up to 10 takeout meals in the Paris suburbs every evening.
“At the moment, with the lockdown I end up with 500 euros ($600) a month net,” said the 32-year-old who has driven for Deliveroo since 2017 but also takes jobs for Uber Eats and Stuart.
Inal has trouble seeing the “good side” of his job at the moment and criticises calculations by Deliveroo’s algorithm that decide how much to offer him for jobs.
“A delivery that’s worth six euros at noon is worth just three euros in the evening. You can’t earn a living with this job, unless you’re willing to live like a slave.”
He recently joined an association of gig delivery drivers that seeks to improve working conditions.
“We should be able to defend ourselves,” he maintains.
‘Flexibility’ or ‘on demand’?
When Erica Mighetto began driving with Lyft three years ago, “I just loved it”, she said.
Her grown son had left the house and she thought it would be a great move until she found a job in bookkeeping or property management.
“I really enjoyed, you know, choosing my own hours,” she told AFP. “I thought life was good.”
Mighetto lived in Sacramento but would drive more than an hour to the San Francisco area on weekends because there was more work in the richer towns.
She slept in her car or shelled out $25 for a room.
Mighetto was pulling in $60-$80 an hour before expenses in 2017 but a series of rate cuts caused that to fall to $20 at the beginning of the year and to less than $10 in March.
She finds the algorithms opaque and pernicious.
“So it knows me personally,” said Mighetto. “And the bonus offers were changed, you know, based on what I was willing to accept.”
If friends were getting bonus offers of $50 for doing 20 rides per week, the algorithm would offer her $350 — but for 120 rides a week.
To get enough jobs and claim the bonus, drivers would accept lower fees.
“You’re in this like, vicious cycle black hole,” said Mighetto.
She does not buy the argument that gig work is flexible.
“I personally call it on demand work… there’s no flexibility — you have to work when there’s demand. You’re going to work late nights, long weekends and every single holiday.”
In the spring, she gave up driving for fear of catching Covid-19 but had to fight for unemployment benefits of $450 per week instead of the $167 paid to gig workers.
She received a $600 per week supplemental federal benefit that the US introduced as part of its Covid-19 stimulus measures but it ran out after four months.
Mighetto is bitter about a California referendum — backed by Uber — to overturn a state law that would have forced gig firms to recognise their drivers as employees, and pay them minimum wages and benefits.
California voters approved the measure with 58 percent of the vote.
“We shouldn’t be stripping workers of basic labour protections so people can get cheap rides,” she said.
Juggle the platforms
Twenty-seven-year-old Devon Gutekunst delivers for DoorDash, which just took in almost $3.4 billion in its stock market debut.
His smartphone offers him a job — $5.50 for a 4.6-mile delivery in 30 minutes.
“That’s the equivalent of $11 an hour, that’s too little,” said Gutekunst.
“My personal minimum is $18 an hour. I often make more than that, because I have a strategy.”
Part of it is to be selective and focus on western Los Angeles and the beach towns of Marina Del Rey and Santa Monica.
But mostly it consists of playing different platforms off against each other.
Gutekunst’s job acceptance rate for DoorDash was 12 percent that day but he said it can often be just two percent.
“To make decent money… you really have to juggle, to play with all the offers to make your living.”
$27 for 14-hour shift in Malaysia
Amal Fahmi, 24, keeps his eye glued to his cell phone and the Grab delivery app popular in Southeast Asia.
He is one of many Malaysians who makes a living delivering food, medication and shopping by motorcycle in Petaling Jaya, an affluent suburb of Kuala Lumpur.
Before Covid-19 hit, he was a driver for Grab in Johor, southern Malaysia.
“I could easily make a comfortable living. But after the virus outbreak, life became tough as many people lost their jobs and my income was reduced,” Amal told AFP as he waited outside a department store for his ninth order of the day.
Given the bleak prospects in Johor, he headed to the capital.
“There were no job opportunities in my home town as I lack academic qualifications,” he explained.
Amal earns a little more than $700 a month if he puts in long hours. That day he reached his daily average of $27 after a gruelling 14 hours.
“Look around, there are so many of us doing delivery. It is getting tough,” he said.
Amal would prefer a steady job but does not completely regret the path he has chosen.
What motivates me is I am the boss… I can manage my time and most importantly, no one scolds me,” he laughed.
– AFP
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AFP
Top rice supplier India bans some exports
India, the world’s largest rice exporter, bans non-basmati white rice exports to ensure domestic availability and tackle rising prices amid global food crises, potentially impacting rice-dependent nations.
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MUMBAI, INDIA — The world’s biggest rice exporter India has banned some overseas sales of the grain “with immediate effect”, the government said, in a move that could drive international prices even higher.
Rice is a major world food staple and prices on international markets have soared to decade highs as the world grappled with the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon on production levels.
India would ban exports of non-basmati white rice — which accounts for around a quarter of its total — the consumer affairs and food ministry said.
The move would “ensure adequate availability” and “allay the rise in prices in the domestic market”, it said in a statement late Thursday.
India accounts for more than 40 percent of all global rice shipments, so the decision could “risk exacerbating food insecurity in countries highly dependent on rice imports”, data analytics firm Gro Intelligence said in a note.
Countries expected to be hit by the ban include African nations, Turkey, Syria, and Pakistan — all of them already struggling with high food-price inflation — the firm added.
Global demand saw Indian exports of non-basmati white rice jump 35 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, the ministry said.
The increase came even after the government banned broken rice shipments and imposed a 20 percent export tax on white rice in September.
India exported 10.3 million tonnes of non-basmati white rice last year and Rabobank senior analyst Oscar Tjakra said alternative suppliers did not have spare capacity to fill the gap.
“Typically the major exporters are Thailand, Vietnam, and to some extent Pakistan and the US,” he told AFP. “They won’t have enough supply of rice to replace these.”
Moscow’s cancellation of the Black Sea grain deal that protected Ukrainian exports has already led to wheat prices creeping up, he pointed out.
“Obviously this will add to inflation around the world because rice can be used as a substitute for wheat.”
Rice prices in India rose 14-15 per cent in the year to March and the government “clearly viewed these as red lines from a domestic food security and inflation point of view”, rating agency Crisil’s research director Pushan Sharma said in a note.
India had already curbed exports of wheat and sugar last year to rein in prices.
— AFP
AFP
Chinese mortgage strikers despair as unfinished homes stay stalled
Chinese homebuyers are resorting to mortgage boycotts and protests against developers due to ongoing housing crisis, with little legal recourse and government sensitivity to the issue.
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ZHENGZHOU, CHINA — Gao Zhuang says he has refused to pay his mortgage for months, a desperate protest against the Chinese property developer he blames for endless delays on the unfinished apartment he bought years ago for his son.
He is one of many victims of a long-running housing crisis still wreaking misery on the lives of homebuyers, many of whom have little legal recourse on what has become an ultra-sensitive subject for the government.
The 49-year-old labourer from central Henan bought an apartment in the provincial capital Zhengzhou for 1.2 million yuan (US$170,000) in 2019, and said he was told it would be completed in two years.
He staked much of his savings on the flat, hoping it would improve his son’s marriage prospects and allow his family to start leaving their poorer rural hometown behind.
But the developer announced delay after delay, and construction work ground to a virtual halt late last year.
“The main impact has been on my son,” said Gao, who requested his name be changed to avoid repercussions.
“How can he get married without his own place?”
Gao’s case is not uncommon.
A wave of mortgage boycotts spread nationwide last summer, as cash-strapped developers struggled to raise enough to complete homes they had already sold in advance — a common practice in China.
Endemic issues in the real estate sector had been brought to a head in 2020, when the government cracked down on excessive borrowing and rampant speculation.
Cut off from the easy money that had fuelled the boom of the last few decades, many companies began floundering under accumulated debts.
A slowing economy was hammered further by pandemic-era health curbs, adding to low consumer confidence and a slump in housing demand.
Beijing recently introduced a raft of measures intended to remedy the disarray in the sector.
Although some properties have since been completed, many buyers like Gao are still waiting — while other issues have surfaced, from slapdash building work to disputes over compensation and pressure from local officials.
‘I blame the government’
The property crisis grabbed headlines for its scale, notably entangling industry giant Evergrande, which flirted with bankruptcy before announcing a massive restructuring deal.
The smaller regional firm building Gao’s complex, Henan Jin’en Real Estate, is not publicly listed, making its financial situation hard to discern.
It did not reply to AFP’s requests for comment.
Disgruntled homeowners say the compound’s estimated 100 undelivered homes and shoddy finishes are evidence the company is struggling.
AFP journalists visiting in June observed crumbling exterior masonry, holes in interior walls, loose wiring and unsecured fire doors.
A handful of workers dug trenches and stacked cinder blocks on the site’s periphery, while the sound of drilling emanated from several homes.
Some buyers said the developer had hired a skeleton staff of labourers to justify a rumoured government bailout.
One owner said local officials seemed powerless to ensure the project’s completion, adding that “ordinary people have suffered the worst”.
“I don’t blame the developer — I blame the government,” the middle-aged man told AFP, gazing around the concrete shell of an apartment.
“Some people around here still believe in our government, but I think they’re the least worthy of our faith.”
‘Nothing I can do’
Gao told AFP he stopped paying his 5,000-yuan (US$700) monthly mortgage in January, joining a boycott with others from the complex.
He said his attempts to claim compensation for the delays from the developer had been unsuccessful.
“Their attitude has been, ‘If you don’t like it, sue us,'” Gao said.
“But they know that in China, people like us are rarely able to afford a lawsuit.”
For others, initial fury has given way to helplessness.
“There’s no point getting angry because there’s nothing I can do,” said 24-year-old homebuyer Wang, using a pseudonym.
The online store operator purchased a home in the wealthy eastern city of Ningbo for 690,000 yuan in 2021, but work stopped later that year.
When AFP visited the site, empty towerblock facades surrounded mounds of overturned earth and piping, with rusty vehicles parked chaotically among the rubble.
Around a dozen workers mooched among stone slabs and upturned trees waiting to be planted, roots drying out in the summer sun.
Wang said he had “no confidence” in the latest promise the property would be finished by August’s end.
“After this, I’ll never buy a house that isn’t finished already,” he said.
“And I won’t believe all the rhetoric the government and others come out with.”
Don’t speak out
China’s leadership has recently cut mortgage rates, slashed red tape and offered developers more loans in a bid to shore up the industry.
But analysts warn President Xi Jinping’s government has limited room for manoeuvre and could face further threats as debt distress spreads to state-owned developers and larger cities.
The prognosis for the sector, according to a June note from Japanese bank Nomura, “appears dire”.
For Beijing, the issue threatens one of its highest priorities — social stability.
Authorities in multiple regions have moved to stifle public complaints about unfinished homes in recent months, according to mortgage boycott participants contacted by AFP.
Both Gao and Wang said they had been contacted by local officials to dissuade them from petitioning the government or speaking to the media.
Multiple other buyers said they had received calls from the police, who they feared were also monitoring their private social media groups.
“There’s nothing I can say about this,” one initially receptive group administrator told AFP before abruptly breaking off contact.
“The state is controlling this too strictly right now.”
— AFP
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