This proposed Bill is an improvised version over the Rajasthan law, labour minister Santosh Lad told ET. Rajasthan, by passing a Bill in July last year, became the first state in the country to introduce a law for platform workers.
“Ours is a rights-based Bill aiming to protect the rights of the gig and platform workers,” he said.
The proposed Bill is intended to ensure basic minimum social security for workers. It seems to end arbitrary illegal termination of employees, the minister said.
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The rules will follow after the legislature passes the Bill.
RAHUL GANDHI’S PROMISE:
Ahead of the assembly polls in May last year, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi interacted with gig workers in Bengaluru, discussing their issues and taking a 2 km ride with a delivery partner on his vehicle.
The Congress party had, in its assembly election manifesto, promised a gig workers’ welfare board and minimum hourly wage for workers in the unorganised sector.
Bengaluru is estimated to have about 200,000 gig workers on Dunzo, Swiggy, Blinkit and other delivery platforms. Two years ago, gig workers from Dunzo had protested when the platform introduced an incentive-based model of payment for its delivery agents. The move had effectively slashed the per-delivery payments. The proposed law promises a grievance redressal mechanism and seeks to prevent arbitrary and illegal termination.
The draft Bill is the outcome of several rounds of discussion with the aggregators and a conference held in collaboration with the International Labour Organization. Labour department officials said they have put out the draft law after discussions with platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, Uber, Ola, Rapido, Zomato, and Dunzo.
The government has said that every platform-based gig worker and aggregator must register with the labour department. The aggregator must also enter into a fair compensation agreement as per the contract guidelines and templates the government would notify.
WELFARE BOARD, FUND:
The proposed Bill promises a Platform Workers Welfare Board to monitor registration of platforms with the government and that they comply with other regulations. There will also be a welfare fund, to be raised through the fee on each online transaction or a levy on the annual turnover of the aggregators, contributions from gig workers, grants from the government and other donations.
The draft law seeks transparency in algorithm control through automated monitoring and decision-making systems.
