Testbirds contributes to Ombuds Office for Crowd workers

Companies establish an institution to mediate in case of conflicts between crowd workers and signees of the Code of Conduct

Munich, 6 November 2017 – An institution for conflicts between providers and crowd workers – the Ombuds Office for crowd working. The eight signees of the Code of Conduct for Crowdsourcing will now be measured against the rules in these guidelines. Apart from Testbirds, the signees are appJobber, BugFinders, Clickworker, content.de, Crowd Guru, ShopScout and Streetspotr.

In January 2017, the companies published the second version of the Code of Conduct with more concrete guidelines together with the German workers’ union IG Metall and the German Crowdsourcing Association. This version contains, for example, amended guidelines regarding complaints by crowd workers. With the Ombuds Office the platforms go one step further: Crowd workers can now call upon the institution if they did not find a solution for a conflict bilaterally with the respective platform. There is a form online for these complaints: https://ombudsstelle.crowdwork-igmetall.de/en.html. The Code of Conduct and the form are available in German and English.

”The founding of the Ombuds Office is a signal towards our crowd workers: We are willing to be measured against our promises and actively support fair collaboration”, says Philipp Benkler, Founder and Managing Director of Testbirds. “As initiators of the Code of Conduct we intensively work on its further development, for example with the founding of the Ombuds Office. Furthermore we are an active member of the institution.”

The Ombuds Office consists of the following members:

• Dr. Silke Kohlschitter, judge at the labour court of Frankfurt and chairwoman of the Ombuds Office
• Robert Fuß, IG Metall board
• Susanne Reichert, Testbirds, representative for the Crowd working platforms, substituted by Dr. Arne-Christian Sigge, Content.de, if a complaint against Testbirds is submitted
• Thomas Andersen, German Crowdsourcing Association
• Olaf Hoffmann, representative for the crowd workers

The purpose of the institution is to establish a point of contact for crowd workers in case of an unsolved conflict and to make sure that the signees comply with the rules. The members aim at solving conflicts within three months.

The members of the Ombuds Office who represent the platforms and the crowd workers are part of the institution for one year and the seat of the crowd worker is drawn. The representative for the platforms is determined unanimously by the signees of the Code of Conduct. All the others are permanent members. Thus the Ombuds Office ensures a fair and independent view on conflicts, which includes all relevant perspectives.

Further information about the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct is available on: www.crowdsourcing-code.com