Karnataka govt release draft bill for welfare of platform-based Gig workers

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government has released a draft of the proposed Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 aimed to protect their rights in the state with creation of a board, welfare fund and grievance cell among other mechanisms.

According to the state Labour department, the objectives of the proposed bill are "to protect the rights of platform-based Gig workers, to place obligations on aggregators in relation to social security, occupational health and safety, transparency in automated monitoring and decision-making systems and to provide dispute resolution mechanisms," among others.

The proposed welfare board will comprise government officials, including the Karnataka Labour Minister, two officials from aggregators, two Gig workers and a civil society member nominated by the state.

Labour Minister Santosh Lad said the government has held discussions with numerous stakeholders including Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato, and Swiggy. "One is that how do you generate revenue, whether to call it as a fee, whether you call it as a cess or a tax. So, the idea is whether we should go on a transactional model basis or we should go on a turnover basis. So, at last most of the people have agreed that it should go on a transactional basis and not on a turnover basis,", he said.

The Minister said the bill would be tabled in the next Assembly session. "We have talked to everybody, we had called the trade bodies, unions, NGOs, we have taken all their inputs and based on their inputs, we have come up with this new bill," he said.

"My fundamental point is especially people who are working in Gig platforms, they are compromising with their life and health and the reason is if anybody is working 15-16 hours a day on the road... especially two-wheelers, auto rickshaw drivers, or for that matter, four wheelers, they are exposed to the hazardous carbon dioxide they have to inhale so much.

That's one fundamental point where all these people have to look into because how much ever you pay, more or less health is compromised," Lad said.

"Keeping that into consideration, we are trying to create more cess so that we can take care of their health properly. First concern is their health. Longevity of their life is more priority and taking care of their family and children will be our priority and that is where all this Gig platform workers will benefit from this very bill," the Minister explained.

There are nearly two lakh Gig workers in Bengaluru alone who are attached to various platforms, according to officials.

According to draft, a platform based Gig worker will have the right to be registered with the State Government on being onboarded on any platform, irrespective of the duration of the work, and be provided a Unique ID applicable across all platforms, have access to general and specific social security schemes based on contributions made by them as may be notified by the state government and can access a grievance redressal mechanism.