Ombuds Office for the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct publishes 2019 annual report

ByRobert Fuss

March 3, 2020

The Ombuds Office of the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct has published its 2019 annual report.

In 2019, 14 cases were submitted to the Ombuds Office. These cases, as well as 7 open cases from 2018, have been resolved. Some of the questions raised by the complaints submitted to the Ombuds Office were of a fundamental nature; in response to these questions, the Office has developed principles for guiding decisions in future cases.

The Ombuds Office was established in November 2017. It is a bilateral body whose members do their work on a voluntary and unpaid basis. The neutral chair of the office is held by Dr. Silke Kohlschitter, Vice President of the Labour Court of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. On the “platform side” is a representative of the German Crowdsourcing Association (Deutscher Crowdsourcing Verband) and a representative of the platforms who have signed the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct. On the “worker side” is a representative platform worker as well as a trade union representative.

Crowd- or platform workers with a complaint against a client or platform who has signed the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct may submit their complaint to the Ombuds Office via an online form if their attempt to resolve the issue bilaterally with the platform operator is unsuccessful. Complaint procedures undertaken by the Ombuds Office are confidential.