Gig workers’ unions demand Karnataka govt. to pass welfare law instead of waiting for Centre to frame rules for Social Security Code

Representatives of various platform companies present at the roundtable demanded clarity on legislations and sectoral caps while levying the cess towards worker welfare fund. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

Platform and gig workers’ unions and experts have demanded that the Karnataka government pass the The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill at the earliest and not wait for the Central government to frame rules for the Code on Social Security (C)SS), 2020.

The panellists raised their demands at a round table organised by the Department of Labour department as part of the Indian Society of Labour Economics annual conference.

“The Centre introduced the COSS in 2020 and hasn’t done anything regarding it since then. That is why several state governments such as Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana, Jharkhand and Kerala have started considering their own legislations. Karnataka should go ahead with the bill and not wait for the Centre,” said Shaik Salauddin of Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers.

He further pointed out to The Hindu, that the Centre is talking only about a social welfare scheme and the workers require more than that. “You see that the income of CEOs of these companies have gone up, while that of the workers have significantly come down. The government must therefore fix a minimum living wage applicable for all platform companies,” he said.

Undeterred exploitation

Vinay Sarathy of United Food Delivery Partners’ Union pointed out that without a comprehensive legislation in place yet, gig and platform workers continue getting exploited.  He noted that concerns regarding minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, grievance redressal for workers and hurdles for workers to unionise should be addressed.

Balaji Parthasarathy, principal investigator for Fairwork India, termed it an “anomaly” that platform companies refuse to engage with workers’ unions, but teamed up under the banner of NASSCOM and IAMAI and rushed to the government to push back when the draft bill was introduced.

Terming the Karnataka draft bill “by far the most progressive legislation” he said, “If at all the Centre is doing anything they are providing only social welfare benefits which takes a very narrow view to the problems of workers.”

Need clarity

Representatives of various platform companies present at the roundtable demanded clarity on legislations and sectoral caps while levying the cess towards worker welfare fund.

“Labour is a concurrent subject and all platforms are looking for clarity. State and Centre looks at contributions differently. Will there be duplication? We have been having these conversations for many years, and not having clarity puts us in a situation of not knowing what kind of conversation we should have with the state and Centre,” said Athira, Vice President – public policy and governance, Porter. She also suggested that the State must take a nuanced approach to the bill as the business models vary from platform to platform.

Rahat Khanna, chief executive officer, Swiggy, suggested that there should be a mechanism in place to ensure that the benefits from the fund reach the workers. He noted that there are examples of similar corpuses not being utilised.