Draft social security rules may exclude majority of gig workers, unions warn

THE DRAFT RULES on the Social Security Code, 2020, published on December 30, 2025, if adopted in their current form, risk rendering most gig workers ineligible for social security benefits by setting participation thresholds far higher than actual work patterns in the sector, labour unions and worker groups have warned.

- ANEES HUSSAIN & YARUQHULLAH KHAN

The draft rules require gig workers engaged with a single aggregator to work for a minimum of 90 days in a financial year, or 120 days if working across multiple platforms, to qualify for social security benefits including health, life, and personal accident insurance.

The rules do allow doublecounting when workers are active on multiple platforms simultaneously. For instance, someone working on Zomato and Swiggy on the same day would accrue two days toward the threshold. But union leaders say even this flexibility won't help most workers qualify.

Worker groups have cited data shared by Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal on Friday through a post on X, as evidence that majority would miss this threshold. Goyal's post had claimed that the average delivery partner on its platforms worked just 38 days and 7 hour per working day in 2025, with only 2.3% working more than 250 days annually.

Unions argue that even by accounting for workers juggling multiple platforms simultaneously, most would struggle to meet the 120-day threshold.