Hong Kong's gig workers should be treated with dignity, not racism
I run into Abdul, who I call "Boss", at least once a week.
He works full time for a food delivery service, and the Nepali-run sundry shop below my flat in Hong Kong's western district serves as his late-night pit stop on most week days.
Our conversations are usually fleeting; consisting of the standard South Asian opener: "Have you had dinner?".
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In recent weeks we have had more excitable conversations owing to the stellar form of the English Premier League club we both support.
When I met him on Monday night after trudging home from a run, football was once again on his mind.
Then, knowing I work at the Post, the conversation shifted to an ugly episode that had been reported last week: a delivery app customer had requested their takeaway food be delivered by a non-South Asian delivery man.
The request had followed the emergence of a Covid-19 cluster in the Yau Tsim Mong district in which a larger than usual proportion of those infected were South Asians.
Abdul and I spoke about the Equal Opportunities Commission's firm response condemning the request - and the delivery app's decision to ban the customer - though we both lamented how this was a single instance of the casual racism we have encountered from time to time in Hong Kong.
In past conversations, he had told me about rude customers and building attendants who seemed to think South Asian delivery men were beneath them. "Just treat us with respect. Not asking for much," he said with a shrug of his shoulders as we parted ways.
It was not a message for me, but perhaps a vocalisation of his most basic expectation of the customers he faces every day.
I found myself mulling over this exchange for a few days as it reminded me of past conversations with gig workers elsewhere in Asia.
The common thread is that everyone's baseline expectation of others is that they are treated with dignity. In the gig economy that is keeping us going in this unprecedented pandemic, dignity seems to be in dangerously short supply.
As it is, the employment model for many digital economy sectors - be it food or parcel delivery or private hire driving - gives the impression that the people who work these jobs are lesser human beings than the rest of us.
They are not employees, but partners, have little or no medical coverage or sick leave and have found themselves working harder than ever with little change in pay even as the various businesses - especially food delivery - enjoy a fillip from the shift towards working from home.
It will take transformational leadership on the part of policymakers to take on the tech firms - now the darlings of financiers - and grant these workers the rights they deserve.
The least we - you and I, dear reader - can do, is to treat the gig workers who make our lives easier with utmost dignity. Always express gratitude, and treat them as you would like to be treated by others.
Bhavan Jaipragas is the South China Morning Post's Senior Asia Correspondent
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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