Gig workers await the promise of Labour Codes

Will the Labour Codes recently notified by the government ensure labour rights for gig workers and others in India’s vast unorganised sector?

- SHIVA RAJORA

Raman (27) started working as a deliveryman a few years ago, running errands for up to 12 hours a day in the national capital for food, grocery and quick commerce platforms. He is a gig worker, and his life could be about to be changed.

Like Raman, there are 10 million gig workers in India, according to a NITI Aayog report, which projects the number to grow to 23.5 million by 2029-30. They are the foot-soldiers of India’s informal service sector, but Raman is unaware of this status, let alone his entitlements as a worker — an irony given that the national capital where Raman works is powered overwhelmingly by the service sector.

“I don’t know what ‘gig work’ means. I ride 10-12 hours a day and manage to earn enough to keep my life going. Beyond this, I have no connection with any of these apps; nor do they provide me any other benefit like insurance or pension, apart from my earnings,” said Raman.

This situation is likely to change now. That is because nearly five years after Parliament passed four Labour Codes, reforming and consolidating the 29 existing labour laws, the Union government on November 21 notified them for implementation.

The four Codes — on wages (2019), industrial relations (2020), social security (2020) and occupational safety, health and working conditions (2020) — aim to modernise labour regulations, enhance workers’ welfare and align the labour ecosystem with the evolving world of work, including gig work.

The Code on social security recognises gig workers for the first time in the country and provides for framing of welfare schemes for them, covering health, pension, education and disability cover. These are things that have remained out of reach for most workers in India’s teeming and unregulated informal sector, including gig workers.