The rule is expected to be ready in about a month’s time, labour minister Shivaram Hebbar told ET. It will, however, take effect only after the Centre notifies the date of implementation of the new labour codes.
Like Karnataka, other states too may include gig and platform workers under their welfare schemes for unorganised workers as required under chapter IX of the code on social security (CoSS).
“Since labour falls in the concurrent list of the Constitution, both Centre and the states have powers to frame the rules within the CoSS framework,” said additional labour commissioner G Manjunath.
Twenty-four states have reportedly drafted rules under the CoSS. There is no specific reference to gig and platform workers in the code when it comes to states, which is why they are being included in the welfare schemes covering unorganised workers, said a labour department official in Bengaluru.
The CoSS has many references to gig and platform workers, but they all have sought to be covered by the Centre. Sections 114 (1) and 109 (1) require the Centre to notify social security schemes for gig and platform workers, while section 109 (2) requires the state governments to frame welfare schemes for unorganised workers.
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Sections 109(1) and 114(1) require the Centre to frame welfare schemes covering areas such as life and disability cover, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, education, creche and other benefits.
The section 109 (2), on the other hand, requires the states to deal with subjects such as provident fund, employment injury benefit, housing, educational schemes for children, skill upgradation for workers and old age homes.
In 2019, Karnataka had begun wide consultations in an effort to draft a law for gig and platform workers, but gave it up later after the Centre decided to introduce a nation-wide code.
The CoSS also proposes social security welfare boards which will take care of worker benefits using the corpus built through statutory contributions from aggregators.
“We are only working on aspects the code specifically requires the states to notify. It is still evolving. We are waiting for much more clarity,” said the labour department official, who did not wish to be identified.
As of now, there are no laws or regulations in place to protect workers in the event of accidents or sickness. Some app-based aggregators have their own insurance schemes, but they are mostly weak, said Vinay Sarathi, president of Karnataka United Food Delivery Partners Union.
According to a recent tweet by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, there is still no clarity both in central and state government rules regarding the actual social security benefits and schemes that will apply to gig and platform workers.
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