Up & Go: A Platform for Fair Work and Liveable Wages

Abstract

Up & Go is an online platform which brings together several cooperatively owned cleaning businesses for fair work conditions and liveable wages in a sector usually characterised by informal, precarious, and low-paid work. It is a sharing economy platform owned by its workers. Together they set prices, and 95 percent of the profits go to supporting the cooperatively owned businesses. The remaining 5 per cent is invested in Up & Go for advancing the platform’s technology and providing customer service. Furthermore, through business meetings, Up & Go builds capacity, shares ideas, and delivers training to its worker-owners. During these meetings the members of the cooperative set up the rules and structures for making decisions about how to run their business, discuss their rates, and establish their standards of service.