India’s Stand on Global Gig Workers’ Rights

Context

India’s abstention from voting in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) monumental Convention on Decent Work in the Platform Economy highlights the domestic conflict between the rapid growth of the digital economy and protection for workers. This position emphasizes a policy preference for looser state-level welfare models than for tighter binding international classification.

Context of the ILO Convention and India’s Stance

• The Vote: Indian worker and employer delegates voted to allow the ILO to enact the vote, while India abstained.
• Treaty Scope: Sets worldwide standards for fair wages, safety in work, and transparency of algorithms for gig workers, whether formally employed or not.
• The Indian position: Strive to shield a growing digital work force from imposing too much compliance burden that may make platforms wary of investment.

Domestic Framework: Code on Social Security, 2020

• Legal Recognition: First time, central legislation defines ‘gig workers’ and ‘platform workers’.
• Welfare Funding: Requires aggregators to pay 1% – 2% of their yearly revenue into a social security fund.
• The Grey Zone: They do not grant status of “employee” and therefore do not afford workers the same access to the primary industrial dispute processes and minimum wage protections.

Key Challenges in India’s Gig Economy

• Algorithmic Control: Workers are subjected to complex penalty systems, inconsistent wages, and unexpected deactivations of their ID without any human oversight.
• Poor Safety Nets: Millions of people are exposed to physical and financial shocks due to long working hours and without medical or accident insurance.
• Implementation Deficits: There are delays in the process of registration and fund operationalization with the help of the database such as e-Shram by the central and state welfare boards.

Way Forward for Policy

• Redefining Employment: bridging the independent contracting and traditional employment divide to ensure statutory minimums.
• Algorithmic Accountability: Ensure platform rating and task-allocation algorithms have audit rights.
• Universal Portability: Simple transfer of social security benefits between multiple platform interactions.

Source: The Hindu

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