Gig Workers: A Need for Labor Law Reform
According to NITI Aayog, India’s policy think tank report on 2022 titled ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’, “the gig workforce in India is likely to cross 23.5 million workers by 2029-30.”[1] “According to research conducted by ASSOCHAM, a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group, India’s gig economy is likely to grow to $455 billion by 2024.[2] According to the Boston Consulting Group there’s going to be an increase of 90 million gig workers in India over the next decade.”[3] “Gig economy also known as sharing economy or access economy is a free market system where individual and businesses employ independent worker for a specific time. “The term ‘gig’ was used as a slang by artists to describe jobs that are for limited time.”[4] A gig worker is an individual who performs a short term or temporary work which has to be completed in a specified time, often as an independent contractor. Code on social security, 2020 define gig worker in section 2(35) as “a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer-employee relationship.”[5] Despite the rapid growth of gig workers in India, there is a lack of recognition of gig workers under the labour laws; as a result, they are not entitled to any basic protections and benefits such as social security, health insurance, job security, the government welfare scheme for the workers, etc. As mentioned earlier, “the think tank report estimates that by 2029 nearly 23.5 million workers will be engaged in the gig economy”[6], but this report also shows how the gig economy has become struggling from poor safety conditions, lack of minimum wages, absence of employment benefits, and unfair contracts.” Our current labour law doesn’t provide any mechanism to safeguard these workers’ rights and provide them with basic social security. In this Blog, I will try to analyse the current labour laws in India and how they fail to provide safeguard to gig workers’ rights, highlighting the necessity for reform.
LEGISLATIVE SHORTCOMMING IN INDIA’S GIG ECONOMY
In recent times, gig labour has become very popular because of the freedom and flexible workplace it provides. “Gig work has also provided as a source of extra income for individuals in need, enabling them to tide themselves over until they can find work.”[7] In a gig economy, individuals have the liberty to choose when and from where they want to work. But just like how a moon has a dark side, this gig economy also has its cons, comprising of exploitation, poor safety conditions, lack of minimum wages, unfair contracts, etc. Currently, there is a lack of legal reforms to safeguard their rights and availability of basic social security. “In India, gig workers are not covered by any law except the Social Security Code 2020”, which is the only legislation that talks about gig workers, but it doesn’t mandate any specific benefit; it only talks about providing government welfare schemes to these workers without any clear mechanism, but this code has yet to be implemented.
In India the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 provide all employees basic working condition such as regular working hours[8] and minimum wages[9], but gig workers don’t enjoy these rights because they lack the status of an employee in India leaving them in a vulnerable position. Under “the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970” businesses are required to provide basic health and welfare services to their workers, gig workers are also deprived of these amenities because they don’t come under the definition of a ‘contractor’ under this Act. In 2019 and 2020 Government of India introduced 4 new labor laws namely “Code on Wages, 2019, Industrial Relations Code, 2020, Social Security code 2020 and Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, 2020.” “The Code on wages, 2019”[10] guarantee employee a minimum wage and protect them from exploitation, but these only applies to employee within traditional employment. Gig workers are not covered in this code leaving them for exploitation by their employer like Zomato which is infamous for exploiting his delivery partner for long working hours and minimum wage. Talking about the Industrial Relations Code, 2020[11], it provides workers the right to form unions, performing strikes but this only includes individuals working in an industry, depriving gig workers from their right to demand better work condition and better pay. “Moving towards the Occupational Health, “Safety, and Working Conditions Code (2020)”[12] “also doesn’t include gig workers despite considering that many gig workers were working during pandemic. Social Security Code 2020 is only code that provide the definition of gig workers in section 2(35) and also provide provisions for gig workers. This code talks about the basic social security like insurance, health and maternity benefits, old age security etc and welfare scheme which should be provided to the gig workers. This code also provides a provision under which the union government shall create a social security fund for gig workers. Despite providing some social security to gig workers this code fails to include gig workers in laws related to minimum wages and workplace safety.”
VERDICT AND VISONS
Despite government efforts to resolve this modern issue, there remains a need for a reform in our current labour laws to protect gig workers’ rights. There have been many attempts by the gig workers to fight for their basic rights. “IFAT (The Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers),” a “trade union” who represent platform workers like Ola, Uber, Zomato, etc. In 2020, during the pandemic, IFAT filed a “public interest litigation” before the Supreme Court of India, claiming that the fundamental right of gig workers under Art. 14, 21, and 23 has been violated because they are not considered employees under the social security law, depriving them of social security benefits. They demanded “to include ‘gig workers’ and ‘platform workers’ to be included under the unorganised workers so that they could come under the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008”. Another case where the gig workers tried to protect their rights was “All India Gig Workers Union v. Uber India Systems Pvt. Ltd.; in this case, gig workers came up against Uber’s arbitrary practices for exploiting its workers, demanding minimum wage and social security benefits. Just like these cases, there exist many cases in which gig workers have come up to protect their rights as employees, showing an increasing need for reforms in our current labour law.”
GOVERNEMNT INITIATIVE
Some states in India have made an attempt to classify gig workers under the definition of an ‘employee’. In 2023, Rajasthan implemented its “Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023,” through which they try to protect and recognise gig workers’ rights. Recently, the “Labour Department of the Government of Karnataka” released the “Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024.” If this law were to be passed, it would make Karnataka the 2nd state to make legislation for safeguarding gig workers rights. This shows how some states are now making an attempt to recognise the right of gig workers to solve this ongoing modern issue.
CONCLUSION
Through this Article, I have tried to analyse how rapidly the gig economy is growing in our country, and with that, the protection of gig workers’ rights has also become a big concern. As our current labour laws fail to provide adequate provisions to safeguard these workers basic rights like minimum wage, workplace safety, health insurance, social security, etc. With the rapid growth of gig workers, which is going to be over 20 million by 2029, there is an urgent need for legal reforms and government initiative to recognise them as employees under these Labour laws so that they could get the benefit of basic amenities. A multifaceted approach will be needed to address these shortcomings, which include amending laws, creating gig-specific regulations, and creating specific guidelines to protect their rights. In this rapidly changing world, our labour laws should change too and adapt to this modern problem through legislative reforms.
Author: Shashank Rawat, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us at support@ipandlegalfilings.com orIP & Legal Filing
[1] NITI Aayog Launches Report on India’s Gig and Platform Economy (no date) pib.gov.in. Available at: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1837277.
[2] 24, J. (no date) GIG ECONOMY NATIONAL CONFERENCE ALIGNING CONSUMER PREFERENCES: THE WAY FORWARD. Available at: https://www.assocham.org/uploads/files/1628143386.pdf.
[3] 4 Boston Consulting Group. (2021),’ Unlocking the Potential of the Gig Economy in India’,https://mediapublications.bcg.com/India-Gig-Economy-Report.pdf
[4] Vaidyanathan Ramesh & Bose Probal, “The conundrums of a gig economy”, (2017), http://www.advayalegal.com/blog/the-conundrumsof-a-gig-economy/.
[5] The Code of Social Security, 2020 § 2(35), No. 36, Acts of parliament, 2020 (India).
[6] NITI Aayog Launches Report on India’s Gig and Platform Economy (no date) pib.gov.in. Available at: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1837277.
[7] Kapoor Amit,” Challenges with gig economy” (2021), https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/the challenge-with-gigeconomy/articleshow/85031089.cms
[8] The Minimum Wage Act, 1948, § 13, No. 11, Acts of Parliament, 1948 (India).
[9] The Minimum Wage Act, 1948, § 3, No. 11, Acts of Parliament, 1948 (India).
[10] The Code on Wages, 2019
[11] The Industrial Relations Code, 2020.
[12] The Occupational Health, Safety, and Working Conditions Code, (2020).
