As gig workers’ unions organized a strike on New Year’s Eve demanding better working conditions, several people took to X and other social media platforms to debate the value of gig work in India’s economy.
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal and InfoEdge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani (also a Zomato investor) argued that gig work was valuable, pointing out that the strike had clearly failed. Others including Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha met gig workers on strike in Delhi, supporting their demands for better working conditions.
Zomato's food delivery partners workforce grew 18% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) from FY22 to FY25. In the first half of this fiscal year, it had 532,000 monthly active delivery partners, up 10% year on year, per a quarterly disclosure.
There are about 12.7 million gig workers in India, according to Niti Aayog, a number that’s expected to rise to 23.5 million by 2029-30.
However, gig workers are different from permanent workers or even contract labour, given that they can switch between employers (platforms) anytime. So how do Indian labour laws treat them and their representative bodies? Mint explains.
How do workers’ unions generally operate in India?
An association representing workers in a specific field or of a company is generally registered under India’s Trade Union Act after applying to be formally recognized by a registrar of unions in a state or union territory. India had more than 37,000 registered trade unions in 2022, according to the latest data available with the Labour Bureau.
It also has 12 officially recognized central trade unions, and small unions often associate with these larger ones. Apart from setting the rules of registration, membership and financing, trade union laws offer registered union members protection from some civil and criminal suits.
How are gig workers’ unions different from trade unions?
Not all gig workers’ groups are registered unions. Members of a trade union must be employees of a trade or a company to sign up to be a union member. However, by its nature, gig work is temporary, and workers do not work full-time or even part-time for any one platform. Gig workers can switch between platforms and industries at will.
For example, a bike owner can deliver food for Zomato and Swiggy, ferry parcels for Porter and Uber, or operate a bike taxi for Rapido. Some gig workers’ unions may not be registered under the Trade Union Act but may be registered as a society and affiliated with larger, registered trade unions. However, this means they may not have the privileges and protection that come with recognition under the Trade Union Act.
Does that mean gig workers’ unions and strikes are not legitimate?
Not exactly. Gig workers have been mobilizing since the mid-2010s, starting with transport union workers who signed up to drive for app-based taxi services.
“Over time, with the sheer volume of gig workers growing in India and the growing perception that these workers may be marginalized and not adequately represented when dealing with the platforms, gig workers’ federations and unions have gained a lot of strength and voice,” Ashwini Vittalachar, partner at law firm Samvad Partners told Mint.
How do Indian labour laws address the ephemeral nature of gig work?
Late in December, the Indian government proposed draft rules for the Code on Social Security, 2020, which define a gig worker and their eligibility for benefits under this Code. According to the proposed rules, a gig worker must have worked a minimum of 90 days with one aggregator or 120 days with multiple aggregators in one financial year to be officially recognized.
Besides this, the draft rules propose the creation of a social security fund and a National Social Security Board for Gig Workers and Platform Workers, along with formally registering gig workers that meet these criteria on a central government portal. States such as Rajasthan and Telangana have passed similar gig workers’ welfare laws.
“These laws give better social security to gig workers,” Vittalachar said. “The concept of a fund and welfare board is also expected to give recognition to these representative bodies who are increasingly becoming the collective voice and strength of gig workers.”
Have such informal workers ever unionized in the past?
Yes. From the 1970s to the 1990s, labour movements in India unionized workers who were previously unrepresented because they did not work in factories or other formal setups. These workers, just like gig workers, tended not to have one single employer or long-term permanent contracts.
Among the first such set of unionized workers were the headloaders or mathadis who set up a welfare board in 1974 in Maharashtra. Later, temporary construction labourers began organizing into unions, and in 1996, India passed the Building and other Construction Workers Act. Other similar unions were set up in the 1970s and 80s for casual workers with no permanent contracts including cine workers, beedi workers, mine labourers, and fishermen.