India needs national legal, social security architecture for gig workers: Congress

New Delhi: Citing legislations by its state governments to ensure justice for gig workers, the Congress on Thursday said India needs a national legal and social security architecture for such workers and hoped that the forthcoming Union Budget will take a step in that direction.

Congress general secretary, in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh said the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 is a landmark rights-based legislation that brings formal rights and social security to platform-based gig workers in the state.

The Karnataka Government last month released a draft of the proposed Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 aimed to protect their rights in the state with creation of a board, welfare fund and grievance cell among other mechanisms.

Ramesh listed some of the features of the bill such as establishing the gig worker’s social security and welfare fund and gig workers welfare board to advocate for gig workers.

The bill also calls for mandatory registration of all gig workers with the government and states that aggregators can no longer terminate a worker without giving 14 days prior notice and a valid reason.

According to the bill, aggregators must make payments to gig workers every week.

"Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has been a leading voice for India's gig workers since the Bharat Jodo Yatra," Ramesh said in his post on X.

He said the Congress governments in Telangana and Karnataka, and the previous Congress government in Rajasthan, have brought powerful legislation to bring gig workers justice.

Social security for gig workers was also a key guarantee given by the Indian National Congress’s Nyay Patra for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, he pointed out.

"As much as state governments can do, India needs a national legal and social security architecture for gig workers. Their numbers are only projected to rise, from 77 lakhs in 2022 to about 2.4 crores in 2030. The ball is in the court of the Union Government. Hopefully the forthcoming Budget will take a step in this direction," Ramesh said.

According to Karnataka's Labour department, the objectives of the proposed bill are "to protect the rights of platform-based gig workers, to place obligations on aggregators in relation to social security, occupational health and safety, transparency in automated monitoring and decision-making systems and to provide dispute resolution mechanisms," among others.