Eight months after pledging better conditions for gig workers in Telangana, Congress’s promises remain unfulfilled. The workers, primarily employed by food delivery and ride-hailing services, are growing increasingly frustrated. Despite assurances of regulatory reforms and welfare measures, the party has yet to take concrete steps, leaving gig workers in uncertainty.
Telangana’s draft Gig and Platform Workers (Rights and Welfare) Bill, 2024, proposes eight rights for gig and platform workers including the Right to Social Security, the Right to a Fair Contract, the Right to form a Workers’ Union, and the Right to Fair Wages.
Even eight months after coming to power in Telangana, the A Revanth Reddy-led Congress government has not implemented its leader Rahul Gandhi’s promises to gig and platform workers.
During the December 2023 Assembly polls campaign, Rahul Gandhi promised a legislation ensuring a social security framework for gig workers. Revanth Reddy went further and vowed to provide insurance and launch a government-run app, an alternative to ride-hailing apps to ensure proper earnings.
The Congress reiterated its promise in its manifesto — Nyay Patra — released ahead of the General Elections. “We will make a law to specify and protect the rights of gig workers and unorganised workers and enhance their social security,” it said.
Incidentally, the 138-year-old party had made the promise to gig workers during Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Still, the Congress government in Telangana seems to be in no mood to address the concerns of the gig and platform workers, numbering about 4.2 lakh.
Need for a policy
According to Taskmo Gig Index 2022, Mumbai and Hyderabad have substantially larger gig economies than other Indian cities. In Hyderabad, the gig economy was growing at a monthly rate of 45 percent.
Jobs in India are broadly divided into the formal and informal sectors. Gig work falls under the ambit of the informal sector. There is no regulation or policy for gig workers with legal standing. They have no prescribed working hours, overtime benefits, leave policies, or insurance coverage, leaving them vulnerable.
Generally, the data gets murky in the informal sector. However, the recent National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) for 2021-22 and 2022-23 revealed that India’s informal workforce is 110 million strong.
Within the informal sector, platform-based gig workers work in partnership with services and aggregators like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Rapido, etc.
According to NITI Aayog’s 2023 Policy Brief, the platform-based gig workforce will grow to 2.35 crore by 2029-30. However, even these estimates come from insufficient data from the gig industry.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh noted the importance of policies for gig workers. He hoped the Union government would work towards a legal and social security architecture for gig workers.
Unkept promises
The demand for a gig worker’s policy is neither new nor vacuous. Following the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, the demand for social security for gig workers grew louder.
Although the Congress failed to form the central government, it took over the reins in Telangana. After ascending to power in December 2023, Revanth Reddy promised to enact a law for gig workers. He stated that the law would provide gig workers with social security along the lines of relevant policy in Rajasthan.
At a gig workers’ meeting in Hyderabad, he promised health insurance to the tune of ₹10 lakh and accident insurance up to ₹5 lakh.
He stated that the Congress would table a Bill during the February 2024 budget session. In the interim budget of February 2024, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu announced partial fulfilment of the promises by announcing the ₹5 lakh accident insurance.
However, the Assembly has yet to table a comprehensive policy.
Gig workers’ demand
“The gig workers of Telangana are asking that the government fulfils its four promises,” Shaik Salauddin, the founder of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU), said. He is also the co-founder of the India Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT).
“We were promised a gig workers’ law, social security, minimum wage, and an app dedicated to us,” he said. However, he expressed concern that none of these came to fruition. Additionally, he stated that the chief minister’s insurance promise is far from implementation.
“The aggregators are not giving the government the data. How will the government formulate or implement any policy,” he asked.
Salauddin explained that while the government announced the insurance for gig workers, its implementation was through Aarogya Sri (a scheme providing financial assistance for medical expenses). Yet, the lack of data proved an obstacle to providing coverage under the scheme.
Sources at the Department of Labour corroborated Salauddin’s claim regarding the aggregators’ reluctance to provide data.
Draft bill sans action plan?
South First accessed the preliminary draft of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers (Rights and Welfare) Bill, 2024.
It proposes eight rights for gig and platform workers including the Right to Social Security, the Right to a Fair Contract, the Right to form a Workers’ Union, and the Right to Fair Wages.
The bill also requires aggregators to ensure health, safety, and reasonable working standards for the workers. It also mandates aggregators to reveal the parameters of assigning and assessing the job. However, most importantly, it determines that aggregators shall pay the workers a state-determined minimum wage.
It also details the establishment and composition of a Gig and Platform Workers Welfare Board. The welfare board consists of 15 members including an independent chairperson and an IT expert. The draft bill also proposes the establishment of a welfare fund for the workers and levying a welfare fee on the aggregators.
There has been no update on the draft bill submitted by the TGPWU yet.
However, there are concerns that such regulation might be detrimental to the gig economy’s growth in Telangana, despite the workers’ social security.
Code on Social Security
The closest thing that gig workers have to a social security framework comes from the Union Law and Justice Ministry’s Code on Social Security (2020).
It promises to establish and implement a social security framework for gig and platform workers. However, the Union government has yet to take any meaningful strides regarding the same.
Interestingly, the Telangana edition of this policy, the Code on Social Security (2022), does not mention gig workers. Consisting of chapters detailing the social security measures for the unorganised sector, it provides facilities like insurance and maternity benefits.
The highly digital nature of the gig economy differentiates it from the remaining unorganised sector. With forecasts predicting that the industry will only grow, and Hyderabad being a hotspot for the economy the code holds potential to add a chapter for gig and platform workers.
Additionally, there is a gap between legislation and implementation which flies under the radar. States like Rajasthan and Karnataka have passed their homegrown gig workers’ bills. However, the implementation of these policies is ridden with numerous technical and practical challenges like data monitoring and fee levies.
The Department of Labour was unavailable to comment, despite multiple efforts. #hydkhabar
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