NAVIGATING THE REGULATORY CROSSROADS: INDIA’S DILEMMA ON THE EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF PLATFORM WORKERS

Abstract

The platform and gig economy exemplifies a profound change in the structuring, exchanging and rewarding of labor in the economy. Typically, the traditional employment relationship is based on long-term contracts, and identifiable employers, while gig work is based on digitally mediated, decentralized work transactions between service providers and clients. This in turn has significant implications for the legal system, labor rights, and social protection systems in India. Given its growing digital infrastructure and surplus labor force, India is a site of such work. According to estimates from the International Labor Organization (ILO), there were more than 777 digital labor platforms worldwide by 2023, thus generating millions of jobs and exacerbating employment precarities. In addition, the NITI Aayog estimated that gig and platform employment workforce was 7.7 million and would grow to 23.5 million by 2030, which would be about 6.7% of the non-agricultural workforce in India. This was reaffirmed in the ILO’s 2024, “Expansion of the Gig and Platform Economy in India Report” which agrees and takes note that platform workers have developed into a new class of economic actors that still have an unclear legal status and recognition. The ambiguity that workers faced was further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the lockdowns imposed did halt many sectors, platform based services, such as delivery, online freelancing, and logistics, quickly expanded. This underscored both the resilience and the vulnerabilities present in the gig work sector. Questions of social security problems escalated, as did the issue of declining incomes due to rising platform commissions and algorithmic opacity. In response to this uncertain political economy of labor, questions around the employment categorization of platform workers have become urgent. Are these workers employees, independent contractors, or a categorization of something in between? This paper examines these issues through the lens of the Indian laws, comparative global analysis and emerging policy responses