New Delhi: Income security, ensuring occupational safety and a strong grievance redressal mechanism — including imposing penalties on aggregators for violations — are among the key provisions the Karnataka government plans to propose in new legislation for the welfare of gig workers, ThePrint has learnt.
While the state government is yet to finalise the Karnataka Gig Workers (Conditions of Service and Welfare) Bill, 2024, it has shared a draft with stakeholders during a meeting last week.
The draft will soon be placed in the public domain for comments, senior Karnataka government officials told ThePrint.
After Rajasthan, Karnataka will be the second state to have a law for the welfare of gig workers.
Last year, the Rajasthan government passed the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023, to provide social security to gig workers.
While the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government also included gig workers in the social security code that was passed by the Parliament in 2020, it has not been implemented as the government has yet to frame the rules.
In the past few years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a sharp rise in the number of people engaged in gig work, according to labour rights experts and activists.
According to the NITI Aayog, 77 lakh (7.7 million) workers were engaged in the gig economy in 2020-21 and the workforce is expected to “expand to 2.35 crore (23.5 million) workers by 2029-30”.
Meanwhile, according to the draft legislation, which was shared with stakeholders, the Karnataka government plans to put in place a strict mechanism to ensure fair terms of contract, proper dispute and grievance redressal mechanisms, the setting up of a state-level welfare board, a central transaction monitoring system, and a provision to impose penalties on aggregators for violations, among others ThePrint has learnt.
Dr G. Manjunath, additional labour commissioner, Karnataka government, said there is now a need to have regulations in place for the welfare of gig workers.
“With a large number of people involved in gig work, it is important to have rules in place to ensure social security for them. We are in the process of finalising the draft for the gig workers’ legislation. We recently held a consultation with all the stakeholders and will soon put it in the public domain for comments,” he told ThePrint.
He added that they have looked at the Rajasthan bill and identified certain gaps, such as ensuring income security, imposing penalties on aggregators, and making aggregators accountable for the occupational safety and health of workers, among others.
“We are planning to have a provision for charging aggregators gig workers’ welfare fee, which will be a percentage of the pay of the gig worker per transaction,” he explained.
The draft is modelled on Rajasthan’s legislation, but it has more provisions for the safety and welfare of workers, said senior officials.
According to Nikhil Dey, co-founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, with a large percentage of gig workers in India working eight hours or more daily, it is about time to have legislation in place to protect them and “move towards formalisation of this workforce”.
“Rajasthan was the first state to take measures to provide social security to gig workers. The draft legislation by the Karnataka government is a step forward, as it has provisions to address key challenges faced by gig workers, especially related to occupational safety and health, and terms of the contract,” Dey told ThePrint.
Also Read: Caste disparity, fear of violence & no family time — survey puts numbers to gig workers’ troubles
Occupational safety, income security key provisions
The Karnataka government’s draft focuses on occupational safety and health of workers. Aggregators will have to comply with sector-specific occupational safety and health standards. It also mentions stringent provisions related to fair terms of contract.
Other issues faced by workers are related to the termination of the contract, poor dispute mechanisms, and payment-related issues, among others.
According to the draft, the Karnataka government plans to have strict norms for the termination of work and ensuring income security. Moreover, the contractual agreement between aggregators and gig workers will have a list of grounds for termination or deactivation of workers from the online platform.
Dey highlighted that the provisions related to fair terms of contract in the Karnataka draft are very important.
“The Karnataka government has tried to address this issue by making provisions for fair terms of contract, grievance redressal, among other provisions. One of the major issues faced by workers is abrupt termination of work. Health and occupational safety is a very important aspect mentioned in Karnataka’s draft. These are important provisions proposed in the draft.”
Meanwhile, activists said that the provisions in the draft legislation are essential as surveys by NGOs and gig workers’ organisations, such as Janpahal and IFAT, have highlighted the problems faced by gig workers.
A survey by Janpahal, a Delhi-based non-profit organisation, found that gig work is the main source of income for a large percentage of workers engaged with various online platforms.
It found that around 85 percent of gig workers, largely in the age group of 30-50, put in eight or more hours daily.
According to Janpahal’s ‘Respect and Integrity of Gig workers; Humanity and Trust in Service (RIGHTS)’ survey report released on 7 March, long hours, urgency to meet the delivery targets, carrying excess weight, lack of regular income and no social security, such as health insurance, etc, take a toll on their physical and mental well-being.
Registration of gig workers with welfare board
With a large number of people engaged in gig work, activists said that state governments should have a mechanism in place to register them.
On the lines of the Rajasthan government’s law for gig workers, the Karnataka government plans to set up a welfare board for gig workers and make it mandatory for aggregators to provide details of all registered gig workers to the board.
Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary and co-founder of the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) said, the provisions for registration of workers with the welfare board once they start work with any platform and central monitoring of all transactions, among others, are important provisions.
“The provision for auto-registration of workers with the board is important as workers often don’t know about it. The workers can approach the board in case of any issue. The draft mandates that aggregators will have to provide gig workers with a ‘human point of contact’ for all clarifications. Right now, workers don’t know whom to contact in the company or the state government for grievances,” Salauddin told ThePrint.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
Also Read: Govt can’t make gig workers’ welfare all about social security. Choice, flexibility are key