Editorial: The real big gig is to organise

Karnataka has become the third state in India, after Rajasthan and Bihar, to pass a bill to protect the interests of gig and platform workers. When duly enacted, the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2025, mandates setting up a welfare fund for these workers that will be funded through three channels: a welfare fee of 1-5% charged on each transaction, contributions by registered workers, and state and central grants-in-aid.

The bill imposes only limited liability on the aggregator platforms. These companies — which include ride-hailing, food delivery and utility services and last-mile logistics providers — will only be required to register their gig workers with a welfare board and let it monitor the social security facilities they have pledged to workers. A major positive is that the welfare board will act as a dispute resolution platform, which means that workers who feel they have been arbitrarily short-changed, blocked, or rated down will now have an agency to appeal to rather than be stonewalled by an IVRS system located at HQ.

The major flaw remains that the bill effectively allows platform companies to pass on the workers’ welfare charge to consumers, adding to an already mind-boggling list of imposts: delivery fee, packing charge, GST, long-distance charge, festival fee, congestion surcharge, it’s raining fee, tip, and so on. This is a major departure from the bill enacted by Rajasthan, the first state in the country to legislate for gig workers, in 2023. That state, also Congress-ruled then, established a welfare fund that is funded through a 2 per cent tax on revenue earned by digital platforms operating within the state. Obviously, that was not much to the liking of industry lobbies like the Technology Services Industry Association, which warned that such taxes would hinder business and be counterproductive. The Karnataka government’s decision to shift the welfare charge to consumers and taxpayers at large will please an industry that claims credit for being a job-generating engine but hides behind the appellation of “partners” for its workers.

In mandating welfare measures, the Karnataka bill does not also go as far as the 2025 Bihar enactment for gig workers, which goes beyond the establishment of a fund and spells out quantifiable protections. The Bihar model, besides mandating compulsory registration of workers and platforms within 60 days and unique IDs for workers to access state welfare schemes, stipulates specific financial compensation, including Rs 4 lakh for accidental death, Rs 16,000 for hospital stays exceeding a week, and disability benefits ranging from Rs 74,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. It also includes 90 days of maternity leave for women gig workers.

All these welfare legislations for gig workers, including the one in Karnataka, are welcome steps forward. What is evident from each of them is the power of mobilisation by workers. These bills would not have come about but for union formation in several locations and lobbying of local governments as a tangible vote bank. The breakthrough in Rajasthan provided the template for Bihar and Karnataka, which in turn is serving as the model for the draft being considered in Telangana. These small advances hold lessons for political parties hoping to gain the support of long-neglected urban workers. Those same lessons hold good for workers in other sectors, such as information technology, hankering for better conditions. Organise! Organise!