What does the Karnataka Bill promise gig workers? | Explained
The Hindu
What are some of the key measures proposed for the welfare of gig workers in the State? With the rise of several platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola and others shaping the gig economy in India and impacting the labour market in a big way, why are safeguards necessary?
The story so far: On June 29, the Karnataka government published the draft of the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, making it the second Indian State to initiate such a move, the first being Rajasthan.
The Bill seeks to regulate the social security and welfare of platform-based gig workers in the State and is expected to be placed in the monsoon session of the Assembly.
The draft defines a gig worker as “a person who performs a work or participates in a work arrangement that results in a given rate of payment, based on terms and conditions laid down in such a contract and includes all piece-rate work, and whose work is sourced through a platform, in the services specified in Schedule-1.” A 2022 NITI Aayog report estimates that India will have 23.5 million gig workers by 2029-30. Around 2 lakh gig workers work with platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola, Urban Company, Porter, Dunzo, Amazon, Flipkart and so on in Bengaluru alone reportedly. The last two decades have seen the rise of several such platforms shaping the gig economy in India and impacting the labour market in a big way.
Veering away from traditional employer-employee relationships, the aggregators do not onboard gig workers as their employees, but as ‘partners’ (or other similar terminologies). This essentially makes the workers independent contractors and leaves them outside the security net of labour protection laws. Although initially thought of as a great opportunity to make money while enjoying autonomy and flexibility, over the years workers started seeing reduced payments, arbitrary dismissals and other instances of exploitation in the absence of regulatory laws.
Introduced as a ‘rights-based bill’, the Karnataka draft Bill seeks to protect the rights of platform-based gig workers and places obligations on aggregators in relation to social security, occupational health and safety of workers. The new draft aims to introduce safeguards against unfair dismissals, bring in a two-level grievance redressal mechanism for workers, and more transparency with regards to the automated monitoring and decision-making systems deployed by platforms.
According to the draft Bill, the contract between the aggregator and the worker should contain an exhaustive list of grounds on which the contract would be terminated by the aggregator. It also stipulates that the aggregator shall not terminate a worker without giving valid reasons in writing and prior notice of 14 days.
Arbitrary terminations have been a major complaint raised by gig workers for many years now. Instances of blacklisting workers or terminating them from work without hearing out their side have been aplenty. Often, platforms enact these through automated monitoring and decision-making systems which track the work and earnings of the gig worker, record customer feedback, and make decisions accordingly. Workers point out that this system is heavily skewed in favour of the customer and makes it a game of chasing ratings and pleasing the customer at any cost. The absence of human intervention leaves no room for grievance redressal for the latter.
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