11. What’s going on with gig workers in India?

Hello all 👋🏾

Another week, another opportunity to dig into a #wearedistributed newsletter entry with the latest global employment news, workplace issues, tools to make your work/life more seamless, and a green flag to help job seekers.

Last week, we talked about the absolutely horrific working environments for Amazon workers, a global employment advocate who talks about an interesting concept of a global passport, how a good Glassdoor rating is a green flag for job seekers and more.

You can read or (re-read) the #wearedistributed's last entry here.

Let’s get started for this week. 👇🏼

Global Employment Advocate of the Week

Irene (N.) Gitau, who talks about startups, global hiring, and helps companies scale globally, is our Global Employment Advocate for the Week!

Irene, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and works for Deel, wrote a LinkedIn article about how remote working is the best thing since sliced bread (love the title by the way) 😂. In the article, she talked about the employee-employer benefits of global working and how it is the future of work. See the excerpt below:

Some of the WFH benefits she highlighted are zero commutes, work flexibility, and work-life balance. We agree with Irene about remote work being the future of work and being better than sliced bread, which is amazing too!

Workplace Callout

In this week’s workplace callout, we’re shedding some light on the unfair gig economy structure in India taking place during a time of uncharacteristically unpredictable weather. In an article by RestofWorld, gig workers in India are bearing the brunt.

Since they can hardly make a liveable wage from grocery or food delivery apps (the only jobs available), gig workers are forced to complete as many orders as they can despite feeling seriously ill or taking zero breaks in unbearable heat and sudden showers that have left a lot of unprepared workers sick. While summer came early for Dehli, according to the article, May has been reporting record frigidly cold mornings.

According to an article on ZTNext, companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Dunzo, and Zepto are some of the worst offenders in the gig economy in India. Gig workers who are taxi drivers are also among those who are barely making ends meet.

There are also no rights for gig workers in India. As written in the article “Gig workers are not covered under any existing labor and employment laws in the country. In 2020, the Indian government passed new labor codes under which gig workers, for the first time, would be guaranteed social security benefits, but these haven’t yet been implemented.”

As we’ve researched and written the Workplace Callout section over the past several weeks, it’s been a cruel reminder of just how unfair the labor force is globally, and how laws and regulations desperately need to be changed, especially as the gig economy overtakes and changes the global workforce. When these changes and implementations will actually come to fruition is an entirely other story.

Green Flags for Job Seekers

According to a Clutch study, over half of the employees have said health insurance is the most important benefit that impacts their job satisfaction.

To attract and retain quality workers, companies need to embrace salaries that are getting more and more competitive. However, raw money is not even enough today.

Companies that manage to create a balance between pay and great benefits for their employees (basic medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, etc.) will profit the most.

This is why it is a major green flag if you find a company with great healthcare benefits.

Why is this important? 👇

Offering health insurance is key to employee job satisfaction. In simpler terms, a company that offers health benefits wants you to be healthy and do your job wholeheartedly.

When employers are flexible, receptive, and communicative about the workplace benefits they offer, both businesses and full-time workers profit.

Some of the key health benefits to look out for are:

• Vision care

• Dental care

• Retirement

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

• Paid Vacation and Sick Time

• Paid Holidays

• Paid Medical Leave
  
  

An example of a company with great health benefits is Customer.io where employees get:

• Health & Wellness ( 100% medical, dental, vision, and supplemental insurance premiums for you AND your family).

• Health & wellness allowance of up to $200 per month to be used for your healthy living needs, including gym membership, acupuncture, massage, or bike repairs.

• Unlimited PTO of about 20 vacation days (in addition to holidays and sick days) so that you can unwind, unplug, and recharge.

• 12 weeks of paid parental leave for birth, adoption, or foster care

Distributed Company of the Week

Toggl, a time-tracking software, is our Distributed Company of the Week. 🥳

Currently voted as one of the top 100 companies with the best remote work companies and work-life balance, Toggl has a diverse and fully distributed team since 2014 (Yeap! Wayyy before the pandemic).

Toggl’s values are trust, transparent communication, ownership, sustained speed, respect, innovativeness, and freedom. We understand that values are important, especially for a company where 37 languages are spoken and is operational in 43 countries across 16 time zones.

Did we mention they are pet friendly with 117 dogs, cats, and more? 🙂

Toggl is also very detailed about job openings. Take this Chief Revenue Officer opening as an example which is filled with green flags. The opening has a detailed job description, salary range, what qualifications/experience you should have, the people you will work with, and the perks of the job.

They have a transparent 5-step application process which includes a paid week for you to test the waters.

The benefits and perks of working at Toggl are:

• All expense-paid team meetups

• 4-6 weeks paid sabbatical

• Paid parental leave

• Paid vacation time of 20 days

• Laptop budget of up to €2,500

• €2,000 for home office setup

• €250 monthly for internet or if you want to work from a shared space

• €4,000 for learning and development

• €2,000 for any service or equipment that will help with your mental or physical health

• Support for buying the tools you need to make you more productive and comfortable

That’s quite a list!

Toggl is rated 4.9/5 by 47 past and current employees. Check out a very comprehensive review by an employee of over 5+ years.

Like we always say, it’s important to remember that no company is perfect, but we’re excited to highlight the companies we think are doing a great job at promoting good, global company values.

Distributed Tool of the Week

Another week, another tool to improve your workflow. This one is meant to help our remote community members living with disabilities.

Otter.ai is a tool for real-time transcriptions and notes that’s great for teams, students, and individuals.

According to the website, Otter.ai is a pro at recording and transcribing notes in real time that are fast and accurate. It also can collaborate with any real-time meetings by inserting comments or images or highlighting text. It’s even got a great and easily searchable index so you can keep and recall all of your notes. Users with dyslexia or who are unable to type have found Otter to be incredibly helpful, according to some of the reviews we saw on their website.

It’s accessible on all different platforms like Android, iOS, and internet browsers and comes with a free and premium plan for individuals.

Global Employment Term of the Week

Ready to learn something new?

The global term of the week is Creator Economy

It’s defined as the class of businesses built by over 50 million independent content creators, curators, and community builders including social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers, plus the software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetization.

It has become the fastest-growing type of economy even though it started about a decade ago.

That’s it!

Some of the highlights from the newsletter: we stand with the gig workers in India and look forward to hearing better news on that front. We also appreciate Irene’s article on remote working. 🙂

Are you searching for global roles in candidate-centric and people-first companies? Visit our global job board.

Know anyone who might enjoy reading this? Do not hesitate to share.

Is there anything you would like to see in future newsletters or do you have an idea for our future content series? Let us know in our Community Requests group. 🔥

About this newsletter…

#wearedistributed is a community-driven newsletter, sharing behind the scenes look at the future of work, through the lens of distributed workers. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the full archive, or sign up below: