UN WOMEN + UBER = A VISION for precarious work
12 March 2015
UPDATE
On 23 March, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka declared that UN Women would not accept an offer to collaborate on job creation with Uber.
PSI, other global unions and civil society express deep concerns at the partnership announced between UN Women and Uber.
Women’s economic empowerment relies on access to decent work – this means fair wages, job security, safety at work, social protection for families, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decision that affect their lives, and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
We fail to see how a million precarious, informal jobs could contribute to women’s economic empowerment. Indeed, it represents exactly what the women’s movement has been fighting for decades. Uber economics is the most aggressive informalisation of an industry which was already deregulated three decades ago.
No company should make commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment while simultaneously undermining those goals with their business and employment practices. Women deserve better than a shallow public relations exercise and part-time jobs in the shadow economy.
Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary, says: “We call on UN WOMEN to cancel its partnership with UBER and to stop cooperation with companies that do not respect workers’ rights. The economic empowerment of women can be realized through decent work, not by the creation of low-paid, unprotected and dangerous casual jobs.”
Read the statement by Global Unions
If your organization wants to endorse this statement, please sign on uber@itf.org.uk