Gig workers seek minimum wages, social security

Roundtable in Delhi recommends minimum wages, social security, and legal protections for gig workers, urging tripartite welfare board formation.

A roundtable held in Delhi on Thursday (May 15, 2025) on digital platform-based work in the country has recommended minimum wages, social security, and legal protections for gig and platform workers. The meeting also demanded a tripartite welfare board for gig workers in all States and at the national level, comprising representatives from employees, employers, and governments.

The gig workers’ meeting on ‘Current Developments, Challenges and Way Forward’, organised by NGO Janpahal and the Gig Workers Association, also decided to foster dialogue between stakeholders to identify the way forward within the context of existing policies. Janpahal secretary Dharmendra Kumar said the outcome of the meeting would be sent to the policymakers so that a more equitable gig economy could be created in the country. Representatives from Union and State governments, and international organisations addressed the meeting.

The testimonies shared by workers in the meeting pointed towards the “harsh realities of work” in the sector. “The dictatorial and insensitive attitude of the companies is a regular feature in their life. There are no avenues of redress. Their IDs are blocked, and they are thrown out of work for the smallest mistakes or no mistakes. Society also looks at them with disrespect. Most of these workers are not yet organised, and there are only a few initiatives to organise them. Companies are thwarting any attempts by the workers to organise and unionise themselves. Any initiative for organising, protesting and raising demands is met with termination of work,” a statement issued after the meeting said.

The meeting demanded a minimum wage/income for the workers based on their logged-in hours. “The continuous reduction in the rate cards for workers should be stopped,” it demanded, adding that surcharge collected from consumers should be properly shared with the workers. “Illogical and hefty penalty charges for looting the weekly earnings of the workers should be stopped,” the meeting demanded, and asked the Union Ministry of Labour to instruct the aggregators to follow transparent practices by sharing the reasons for ID blocking, and providing workers with an opportunity to explain before ID blocking.

The meeting urged the Centre to declare a social security policy for digital platform workers. “Coverage of Employees State Insurance and Employees Provident Fund should be extended to online platform workers,” the workers demanded, adding that a tripartite welfare board should be formed with representatives from the aggregator companies, workers, and the government. “This Board should collect cess/ contributions from the companies, register all the workers and manage their social security aspects,” the statement said.