Gig's up: Karnataka draft bill gets thumbs-up, workers propose tweaks

Bengaluru: The draft Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare), Bill 2024, which was released by the state government in July has aimed at providing a long-pending recognition for the gig workers who are an integral part of the city’s workforce. While the Bill is the first step towards the empowerment of these workers and has been welcomed by the sector, there is a need to include finer aspects to the bill and focus on improving their working conditions on the ground, workers opined.

DH spoke to a host of gig workers to understand what they are expecting from the government and if the bill provides for all their needs. While a few workers were concerned about wages, leaves, and health benefits, few others said that the bigger concern was the need for better on-the-ground working conditions. 

“From basic needs such as water to toilets, we have to depend on the public facilities which are not sufficient and accessible all the time. The Bill definitely is a welcome move when we have nothing. However, it would be nice if the government can mandate the aggregators to provide such facilities or the government itself works towards it,” said Maruthi K, a food delivery agent. 

While the bill does advocate for setting up a gig workers welfare board to ensure that the social security schemes reach them, it only includes a clause saying that the aggregators must  ‘provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of the platform-based gig workers’ without getting into the details of the facilities to be ensured. “For instance, workers are offered additional incentives to take deliveries when it rains. Lured by the additional benefits, many of them try to work even though the weather conditions are harsh,” said Vinay Sarathy, president, United Food Delivery Partner’s Union.

Yet another concern that has not been addressed is the need for leave benefits and the advise on working hours, pointed out Suman Das Mahapatra from the All India Gig Workers Union (Karnataka Chapter). 

“To earn a decent amount to meet their basic needs, the workers have to work 12-14 hours a day and there is no concept of leaves or even weekly offs. That apart, many workers tend to work even when they fall sick since there is no option for even a sick leave and the workers are worried about losing a day’s wages,” Mahapatra said. 

Lacunas to be addressed

While the workers are relieved that the bill mandates that aggregators cannot terminate their services abruptly and should provide a 14-day notice, there is a need to look beyond it, Sarathy said. 

“The aggregators should be forced to follow the laws of natural justice. While providing a 14-day notice is a good idea, they should also mandate that the worker is given a fair chance to defend himself against their allegations. There are many many cases where the customers would have complained against the workers for various reasons and the companies tend to take the side of the customer without seeking an explanation from the worker. For instance, there was a case when a customer insisted that he wanted to smoke inside a cab with the AC on, when the driver refused, he raised a false complaint that the driver did not behave well. These are false allegations and the worker should be given a fair chance to explain,” Sarathy explained.

Experts also opined that the Bill has many lacunas that need to be addressed before giving it final approval. From a need to establish an employee-employer relationship between the aggregators and the gig workers to defining the contribution of the welfare fund, the bill needs more clarity, opined Prof Babu Mathew from the Centre for Labour Studies, NLSIU.

“To evade the responsibilities, the aggregators call these workers as partners, agents, and such other names. Hence, there is a need to establish the relationship. Also, the aggregators are supposed to contribute 1 per cent of either the transaction amount or the company turnover to the welfare fund. However, there is a need to mandate this to be calculated for each transaction amount since the company turnover is not essentially a fair representation. The occupational hazards of the profession owing to long hours of driving in dangerous situations have also not been considered and we urge that these workers be considered under the ‘Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1924’ where they are eligible for compensation in case they get into accidents,” Prof Mathew opined. 

Many industry bodies, including the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) have written to the state government expressing ‘serious concerns’ over the details of the bill. Many of them urged that the government should ‘tone down’ the bill by looking at it from the perspective of aggregators and companies. The associations opined that several provisions of the draft bill including the mandatory termination periodand data transparency, could cause hindrance to business.