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Our Code of Conduct

Crowdworking is a relatively new form of work and as such, best practices and regulations are continuously evolving. In order to guide the development of crowdworking for both ourselves and others in the industry, our Code of Conduct outlines how companies, workers, and institutions should act and relate to each other.

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Principles for paid crowdsourcing/crowdworking

Digitalization has had an enormous impact on society as a whole and the working world in particular. This has resulted in new models of employment as well as new forms of collaboration that influence and change the working environment for individuals, employers, and social institutions. Crowdsourcing, the outsourcing of projects and tasks to an international online community, is a result of that development. Within the last few years this new form of work has become more and more popular and has been established as an inherent part of society. However, the risks and controversies associated with crowdworking are still being discussed.

Crowdworking – a new form of employment in the digital world

Crowdworkers earn money while being time and location independent. At the same time, companies get access to a huge number of workers and experts who are available to fulfill the tasks. There are still some uncertainties concerning the collaboration between crowdworkers and companies or service providers. Bad working conditions and remuneration issues are only two of many key topics that are often addressed in this issue.

Self-imposed guidelines – standards and rules for the industry

As a company whose business model is, amongst other things, based on the principle of crowdsourcing, we want to actively shape the societal debate and promote industry standards. To make crowdworking a win-win situation for all participants and foster good working conditions, certain rules are necessary. Therefore we have initiated a set of self-imposed guidelines that is supported by the German Crowdsourcing Association (Deutscher Crowdsourcing Verband e.V.) and was signed by two other leading crowdworking providers, Streetspotr and clickworker. In this Code of Conduct we address payment, communication, time scheduling, privacy protection of crowdworkers and companies, and more. You can see the principles in their entirety at http://www.crowdsourcing-code.com/

 

Examples from the Code of Conduct

1.Tasks in conformance with the law

All undersigned members commit not to offer any projects to the crowdworkers, that contain illegal, discriminating, fraudulent, demagogic, violent or anti-constitutional content. Furthermore, regulations regarding age limitations, e.g. when consuming online content, are considered and declared when giving out a task. The platforms are obliged to regularly check all tasks and projects regarding their legal conformity.

2. Clarification on legal situations

The members of the Code of Conduct commit to inform the crowdworkers about the legal regulations in general and tax regulations in particular, which are connected to crowdworking. In case a company is not permitted to give legal advice, they inform the crowdworkers that they have to take care of the legal matters themselves according to the worker’s own legal and personal circumstances.

Presenting the Code of Conduct

In July 2015 the Code of Conduct was presented to the public in the form of a round table with business representatives, scientists, and members of workers’ unions. The reaction from all participants was consistently positive and the Code of Conduct was rated as an important step in the right direction. Together, we want to further develop these principles. The Code of Conduct is open to all interested parties and we look forward to other companies following our example and supporting the code as well.

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