Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Thursday, to discuss the proposed Gig Workers’ Welfare Bill, which was a poll promise made by the Congress party in both the 2023 Assembly and the 2024 Parliament polls.
“We have decided to establish a Gig Workers' Welfare Board to ensure the well-being of workers employed by companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Ola, and Uber,” said a statement by the CMO, soon after the meeting at Delhi which was attended by Labour Minister Santosh Lad, IT-BT minister Priyank Kharge and Industries minister M.B. Patil. The three ministers had developed differences over certain provisions in the bill which needed to be addressed.
“A cess of 5 per cent of the total payout to gig workers (and not on total transaction value) will be levied on the concerned companies, while the remaining required funds will be provided by the state government to support welfare schemes for gig workers," Siddaramaiah said. The Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, has been deferred since last year after the industry bodies expressed concerns over certain provisions in the bill and the ministers too felt it could impact the startups and industries.
The Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) representatives – Rakshit Dev from Karnataka, Sheikh Salauddin from Hyderabad and Nikhil Dev who were invited for the meeting at Delhi, welcomed the Bill.
Last July, when the bill was placed before the stakeholders for wider consultations, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) had expressed concerns over a few provisions hindering ease of doing business.
The draft bill includes aggregators providing services like ride-sharing, logistics, food and grocery delivery, health care, professional services, e-commerce platforms, travel and hospitality, content and media services. It proposes establishment of Gig Workers' Welfare Board to ensure the well-being of gig workers, the setting up of a social security fund for platform-based gig workers with contributions from aggregators, 14-day termination notice with reasons in writing, and setting up a grievance redressal mechanism.
The IAMAI contended that the proposed levy on gig workers could lead to a dual financial burden on aggregators, which were already operating at a loss. It also felt that mandatory registration and benefit implementation were challenging due to the dynamic nature of gig work. Nasscom stated that the minimum notice period for termination, algorithmic disclosures, and monitoring mechanisms were incompatible with the functioning of gig platforms, and the social security code created a parallel structure and would duplicate the central law – Code on Social Security, 2020. It also sought clarity on the end-use of cess collected from aggregators and stated it lacked safeguards to ensure timely spending on social security schemes.
Siddaramaiah said that a revised comprehensive bill covering all aspects of gig workers' welfare would be presented before the state cabinet for approval.
