A 59-Hour Week Is Common for Singapore Gig Workers, Study Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Drivers for Singapore's food delivery and ride-hailing companies are often working almost 60 hours a week, a survey found, underscoring the lack of protections for gig workers in the city-state.

About 29% of drivers work more than 59 hours a week, according to a survey of nearly 1,000 workers by the National University of Singapore's Institute of Policy Studies. About one-quarter of the drivers surveyed worked exclusively for Gojek. The rest said they also drove for other companies, including Grab Holdings Ltd.

Singapore, along with governments around the world, is considering legislative changes to protect gig-economy workers. Ride-hailing and food-delivery companies like Gojek, Grab, Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda and Deliveroo Plc. have flourished during the pandemic but also exacerbated social inequities.

Many who lost jobs during downturns have taken jobs delivering food or driving passengers but now find it difficult to exit the industry. Labor laws in Singapore limit the work week to 44 hours for employees, but because gig workers are not considered full-time staff, these protections do not apply to them.

People working for ride-hailing and food-delivery apps are often under pressure to hit targets in order to earn a meaningful wage, the report said. Effectively, those incentives require “drivers to work non-stop for 14 to 16 hours a day,” said Harris, 55, a driver that was interviewed by the institute. “It's dangerous.”

Companies encourage or penalize riders to nudge them toward certain behaviors, the institute found. Canceling jobs assigned would have an impact on their ranking and future earnings, in turn limiting the freedom workers have.

Around half of drivers surveyed said that they would leave the ride-sharing industry if there were job opportunities. However, only 31% said that they could easily get a job similar to their previous role or related to their education.

Nearly 60 hours a week behind the wheel takes time away from building skills to develop a career, and those who are more educated may find they've fallen behind their professional peers, the institute said in its study.