The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Rights of the new worker

Karnataka bill provides framework to bring gig work into regulatory ambit of labour

ON JUNE 29, the government of Karnataka released the Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 inviting public suggestion­s. If passed, this would make Karnataka the second Indian state, after Rajasthan, with legislatio­n for gig workers. This draft bill has the potential to extend to gig workers key rights that the Rajasthan Platform-based Gig Workers (registrati­on and Welfare) Act, 2023 failed to provide.

One criticism of the Rajasthan law is that it does not acknowledg­e the expanding view of various legal and economic scholars like Evgeny Morozov, Moritz Altenried, and Julia Tomassetti who argue that platformba­sed gig work is employment and the platforms are not intermedia­ries or markets but employers. This view is gaining traction in internatio­nal legal cases with courts in the Netherland­s acknowledg­ing that the drivers and platforms have a “modern employer-employee relationsh­ip” while courts in the UK and Spain consider associates “workers” but have not stated that the employer is the platform. The Rajasthan law does neither, it does not consider the platform worker an employee or the platform the employer, but declares a separate category called “gig work”, which it does not define in how it differs from extant work. The Karnataka bill while continuing to refer to platform companies as “intermedia­ries” does provide a clearer definition of gigworkers and creates mechanisms for a formal contract between platform companies and workers. Details of what this contract will look like remain unanswered. This potentiall­y provides an enabling framework to bring platform-based gig work into the regulatory ambit of labour.

One concrete issue plaguing gig workers is that their employers, the platform companies, arbitraril­y and often terminate their access to the platform, in effect, terminatin­g their jobs. Since these companies refuse to acknowledg­e they are employers, this is framed as blocking access to a service. The Karnataka bill draft refutes this framing by mandating that companies provide notice of terminatio­n, with a valid reason, 14 days in advance. While it states that grounds for terminatio­n will be provided to workers at the time of contract signing, at this stage it is difficult to ascertain to what extent the legislatio­n will be able to prevent unfair terminatio­ns. In effect, the draft affirms that what the platforms provide is not a mere service which can be arbitraril­y withdrawn. Unlike the Rajasthan legislatio­n, where algorithmi­c transparen­cy can be sought only by the state and the welfare board, the Karnataka bill draft empowers gig workers to request access to informatio­n about work, ratings and personal data. Currently, gig workers have an opaque relationsh­ip with the platforms, which monitor the actions of the workers, punishing those who do not “perform”, but most platforms do not even divulge what these metrics are. This provision reduces the potential for algorithmi­c wage discrimina­tion, workplace harassment, etc.

The bill also expands the role of the welfare board beyond overseeing the disburseme­nt of social security, to include consultati­on with gig-worker associatio­ns and empowers the board to make social security schemes for women and people with disabiliti­es. Thus, the draft accepts the socialised nature of platform-based gig work instead of an atomised transactio­n between a service provider and an “associate”. It creates a grievance redressal mechanism for gig workers; however, they can only be raised about provisions of the draft bill. It however mandates that gig-workers be compensate­d on at least a weekly basis. Notably, the draft bill states that gig workers have the right to raise disputes through the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and therefore in an indirect, however significan­t, manner empowers them to make use of existing Indian labour laws and potentiall­y brings gig workers out of regulatory lacuna. These developmen­ts indicate that even if indirectly, the draft bill brings collective bargaining for gig workers back on the agenda and reflects the impact of the growing strength of gig worker unions in India. For platform-based gig workers, this is a promising developmen­t, though the recognitio­n of gig work as employment remains to be won.

Zaidi studies at Simon Fraser University and Guha is assistant professor at Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay