Fair work
At Humans in the Loop we are committed to providing a safe and ethical work environment
Our Fair Work Policy guides Humans In The Loop in the protection of the rights of our workers in order to guarantee fair conditions and wages. This policy applies to all Humans In The Loop contractors who are performing paid work and who are not full-time or part-time employees of Humans In The Loop.
Recruitment
- We are committed to offering employment as annotators to vulnerable populations, specifically conflict-affected people who ordinarily face legal obstacles in securing employment and receiving payment.
- We do not discriminate against people based on their racial, ethnic or minority background, caste, religious or political belief, sexual orientation or age.
- We are committed to gender equality and strive to ensure that we have at least 50% women in our workforce.
Communication with annotators
- Annotators receive clear written agreements for every project written in a language they understand, outlining the work involved in the project, the expectations on the annotator (including deadlines, basic working values), what purpose the annotation is being used for (the ‘bigger picture’) and pay (and why this project has been priced at that level).
- Annotators receive adequate training for every project so that they have a good understanding of the tasks and how to do them to the highest standard.
- HITL is committed to continuous improvement and will proactively seek feedback from all active annotators via quarterly satisfaction surveys, as well as annually undertaking more in-depth interviews, the results of which will be published on the Impact page on our website.
Payments
- Workers earn a minimum hourly wage that is above the local minimum wage.
- Payments are calculated based on the unit payment for each project and the number of units delivered on time and approved by the project supervisor.
- Annotators are paid for all work completed, regardless of whether they participate in the full duration of the project. In partner countries, HITL submits all payments to the partner NGO monthly or bi-monthly after an invoice and the NGO reimburses workers.
Implementation partners
In addition to having a team of annotators in Bulgaria working directly for HITL as freelancers, HITL has active partnership agreements with the following organisations:
- Roia Foundation
- BrightPoint Ltd
- Anera
- Learning Lions
Projects are allocated according to the following priorities, in order from 1 to 5.
- Experience: Partner who has already worked on a similar, if not the same project
- Availability: Partner who is not working on any projects currently
- Skills: Partner with the lowest minimum skills or experience required for the task
- Capabilities: Partner with the workforce capacity & capability to ramp up in short notice
- Trials: Partner who can commit to a 24-hour trial turnaround time
Quarterly reporting
Past quarter expenses
- Worker payments - 51 %
- Supervision & QC - 17 %
- Overheads - 32 %
Past quarter payments by country
- Bulgaria - 39 %
- Syria - 57 %
- Iraq - 5 %
These priority criteria have been agreed with all partners and aim to achieve a balance of workload across all partner organisations, and to balance using the expertise already gained by annotators and teams, whilst also giving opportunities to new partners to build their capacity.
To read our full fair work policy, email hello@humansintheloop.org