Online ride-hailing drivers' organising for interest representation in Ghana
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2021-0337 |
| Published date | 05 September 2022 |
| Date | 05 September 2022 |
| Pages | 243-256 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Angela Dziedzom Akorsu,Akua Opokua Britwum,Shaibu Bukari,Benjamin Yaw Tachie,Musah Dankwah |
Online ride-hailing drivers’
organising for interest
representation in Ghana
Angela Dziedzom Akorsu
Department of Labour and Human Resource Studies, University of Cape Coast,
Cape Coast, Ghana, and
Akua Opokua Britwum, Shaibu Bukari, Benjamin Yaw Tachie and
Musah Dankwah
University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
Abstract
Purpose –Platform work challenges the traditional modes of workers’organising for interest representation.
This paper aims to examine the political potential for voice and representation of the organising efforts by ride-
hailing drivers in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach –The study design was qualitative and exploratory. Semi-structured
interviews and focus group discussions with individual drivers, key persons and leaders of ride-hailing drivers’
associations were employed. The total number of participants was 40.
Findings –The analysis reveals a bottom-up approach to organising, starting with drivers’exercise of
associational power (AP) to self-organise with a membership logic. Affected by mundane internal challenges
and limited by the non-existent institutional power and the near absence of structural power for right claiming,
they affiliate with TUC as the traditional structural power holders for political influence.
Research limitations/implications –The study has limitations that can be addressed in future research.
First, the targeted and small sample size only allows for rich context-specific generalisation. Future studies
could target more categories of respondents such as vehicle owners and riders and also seek to include the
experiences from other African countries to understand country-specific contextual issues. Second, the
allowance for researcher reflexivity inherent in the methodology adopted has the potential for researcher
biases. Therefore, a deliberate effort was made to ensure that biases remain only a potential. This was done by
participant validation of the data and constant peer-reviewing of the data analysis processes by the authors.
Practical implications –The empirical findings provide trade unions with a stronger basis for and pointers
to represent workers in the platform space.
Originality/value –Platform work in Ghana is an emerging phenomenon, and organising amongst platform
workers remains unexplored.
Keywords Ghana, Labour, Trade unions, Ride-hailing, Organising
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Research on contemporary labour market dynamics, it seems, cannot proceed without
examining the effects of technologically driven alterations to the structure and operations of
labour markets. The globalised production system, characterised by technological
advancement and captioned the fourth industrial revolution, has led to a global
digitalisation of economies. The digitalised economy has occasioned the provision of
goods and services delivered through app-mediated online markets or platforms, hence the
platform economy (Berg et al., 2018). The international labour organization ILO designates
platform work into two, namely, web and location base, highlighting the astronomical
increase in platforms around the globe (Rani et al., 2021). Thus, the global market size of
Online ride-
hailing drivers’
representation
243
This paper is sourced from a research funded by the ILO/ACTRAV through Trade Unions Congress,
Ghana and the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC), University of Cape Coast,
Ghana.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 1 August 2021
Revised 25 April 2022
25 June 2022
10 August 2022
Accepted 11 August 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 45 No. 1, 2023
pp. 243-256
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-08-2021-0337
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