What are the speed-breakers faced by Indian gig-workers on the fast lane?

The Congress party has recently promised to bring in a new law for the gig and platform economy. Take a look at the lives of gig workers as they navigate through an unregulated sector

Laid off from his job as a repairman at a Gurugram-based security firm, Raman Mann (41) now drives a cab for an application-based cab aggregator in Delhi. Mann, who started as a cab driver in August last year, is working longer hours than his earlier salaried job as a security guard and gets no paid leaves or pensionary benefits.

Mann is part of India’s nearly 8-million workers who are part of the gig and platform economy. The number of such workers is expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029-30, according to a NITI Aayog report released in 2022.  Another study by the industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in association with human resource firm Randstad India in 2023 pointed out that nearly 42.24 per cent of India’s start-ups are now looking to hire temporary and gig workers.

Rizul Khan (24) who works as a delivery partner with a leading food delivery platform in Noida says, close to 50 people including college students from his village near Palwal, Haryana are now part of the gig economy as delivery partners or drivers with ride-hailing apps like Ola, Uber, Zomato, Swiggy, Dunzo etc.

“I tried securing a government job in the armed forces and other departments. But two years of Covid-lockdown meant there was hardly any new recruitment during that time. Consequently, I had to start this work to support my family of seven people. Other students from my village were also preparing for these exams and found themselves similarly drawn to gig work. Initially, none of us wanted these jobs, but now it’s what everyone has ended up with,” says Khan.  

Defining gig and platform

Despite its widespread appeal and usage, the terms ‘gig’ and ‘platform’ work have been difficult to define. Both are seen as a part of a wider category of ‘nonstandard employment’ where the work offered is contingent and non-permanent.

As part of undertaking labour reforms and defining the informal, temporary and ambiguous nature of the gig and platform work, the Code on Social Security, 2020 which is part of the newly-passed four labour codes defined ‘gig worker’ and ‘platform worker’ for the first time.

Section 2 (35) of the code defined ‘gig worker’ as a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer-employee relationship, whereas Section 2(60) of the code defines ‘platform work’ as a work arrangement outside traditional employee-employer relationship in which an online platform is used to solve specific problems or to provide specific services which may be notified by the central government. Section 2(61) of the code defines the platform worker as someone engaged in platform work.

Meanwhile, the NITI Aayog report defined gig workers as those engaged in livelihoods outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement and classified them into platform and non-platform-based workers. “Platform workers are those whose work is based on online software apps or digital platforms. Non-platform gig workers are generally casual wage workers and own account workers in the conventional sectors, working part-time or full time,” the report says.

However, since ‘labour’ is a concurrent list item, the rules under the new code need to be drafted by the Centre as well as the states for implementation. According to a recent study by V V Giri National Labour Institute, only 27 States/ Union Territories had framed draft Rules under the code by November 2022 and there is a significant divergence among these state rules as well leading to a delay in the implementation of this new code.

Thanks to this delay, Mann and Khan’s hectic work days do not fetch them paid leaves, health benefits, pension, provident fund, or even medical cover.

Meanwhile, Akriti Bhatia, founder of People’s Association in Grassroots Action and Movements (PAIGAM) says, the way the term ‘gig’ and ‘platform worker’ have been defined in the new code is a misclassification. That’s because a gig and platform worker essentially performs work or participates in a specific task at his own volition and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer-employee relationship, whereas, in India, the platform and gig work has emerged as the principal form of work for millions of people – a reality which the new code has ignored.
 

Working conditions

A recent survey of over 10,000 cab drivers and delivery persons in eight Indian cities (Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru) by the University of Pennsylvania (U-Penn) revealed that nearly 60 per cent cab drivers reported working for more than 12 hours in a day, while 78 per cent delivery personnel worked for more than 10 hours a day.

“Anybody working for such longer hours should get full-time employee status. In India, workers start their professional life by engaging with these platforms in a flexible way, but the deteriorating labour market implicitly makes them dependent on these platforms for livelihood. Terms like ‘partners’ or ‘users’ are used by the platforms to escape legal responsibility of providing them social security and other benefits,” Bhatia says.

The U-Penn survey also highlighted that 43 per cent of cab drivers reported a net monthly earning (after deducting costs such as food, fuel, vehicle maintenance and easy monthly instalments) of below Rs 15,000, while 34 per cent delivery persons reported a net monthly earning of Rs 10,000. Besides, the survey also highlighted that 83 per cent of cab drivers and 73 per cent of delivery persons reported being adversely affected by the deactivation and blocking of their IDs by the platforms.

“The power to arbitrarily block our IDs for any duration of time by these platforms essentially implies retrenching us from our jobs without any notice or severance or legal recourse. A few months ago, I had to sit idle for 21 days following a complaint against me by one of the users. I was without any income or work for that many days. Had there been a law, I could have taken legal recourse and put my side of the events as well,” says Khan.

However, another study by Ola Mobility Institute claims that platforms across the board offer accident cover (including disability and death) with passenger mobility platforms providing up to Rs 5,00,000 and hyperlocal delivery platforms offering between Rs 3,00,000 and Rs 10,00,000 along with health and medical support ranging from telemedicine to OPD support.

“This type of insurance does help increase worker retention. However, these are mostly third-party insurances and are typically only for the worker, not for their family, which creates a gap in these policies,” says Madhav Krishna, founder of the recruitment platform Vahan.

“It has been over a year and I hardly took any weekly holidays or leaves to spend time with my family. They remain worried for my life as I am always on the road and have no accident insurance. Managing household expenses is also getting difficult as a lot of our earnings now go into increased fuel and maintenance costs of vehicles or occasional traffic fines that I have to pay. The ‘hidden’ commission charges by the platforms also lead to me making less money than what I used to earn in the beginning,” Mann recounts, as he makes a case for including gig work under the existing labour laws till the time new codes come into force.

Time for a new law?

At a time when there is a maze of conflicting claims regarding the regulation and provision of social security benefits to the gig and platform workers, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge posted on the social media platform X earlier this month that if the party is elected to power, the government will bring in a new law on the lines of the law in Rajasthan for improving the working conditions in the gig and platform economy and providing social security.

“Crores of such youth who are supporting themselves and their families by working informally in the gig economy shall be benefitted,” the post read.

The Rajasthan government under chief minister Ashok Gehlot passed the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act last year, which among other things provided for establishing a welfare board and a registry of all gig workers, aggregators, and primary employers in the state who work with gig workers. The gig worker will also be assigned an ID number that will be valid across all platforms for the duration of the work and a platform-based welfare cess (between 1-2 per cent of transaction value) will be collected on each transaction to fund social security schemes for gig workers.

Meanwhile, the rules for the same have not been framed yet by the state government, thus delaying the implementation of the law. Shaik Salauddin, general secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) says recognition of the problems being faced by millions of platform-based workers by various state governments is a welcome move. But a lot of issues remain unaddressed including the implementation of these laws.

“The law in Rajasthan has been merely on paper and nobody has benefitted from the Act as the current government has put it on hold due to stonewalling of the cess provisions by the platforms. The upcoming new laws must recognise a gig or platform-based worker as an ‘employee’ and assure minimum earnings per day in accordance with the state laws on minimum wages. Also, simple, transparent and fair contracts are needed along with other measures to better their lives,” he says.

Meanwhile, the NITI Aayog report had called for skill development for the platform jobs, accelerating finance for platform workers, refining the employment survey methodologies to better enumerate platform workers, enhancing social inclusion in the new age digital economy and extending social security benefits like pension and support to workers in a situation of irregular work as it listed out measures to improve the conditions of the gig work and promote it.

Although the new measures remain some time away from being realised, for countless workers like Mann and others, staying in the fast lane is the only way to complete their current deliveries and then turn to their mobile screen for the next opportunity.