Redefining the gigverse

NITI Aayog, in its first ever report (June 2022) on gig economy—‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy Perspectives and Recommendations on the Future of Work’—portrayed a very attractive landscape of India’s gig economy. The study defined the gig workers as “those engaged in livelihoods outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement – can be broadly classified into platform and non-platform-based workers. Platform workers are those whose work is based on online software apps or digital platforms. Non-platform gig workers are generally casual wage workers and own-account workers in the conventional sectors, working part-time or full time.” The term ‘gig’ is a slang word for a job that lasts for a specified period of time. Thus the gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organisations hire independent workers for short-term commitments.

Distinction between the gig and app-based workers

Sangam Tripathy, National Advisor of Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), has very aptly made the distinction between a gig and an app-based worker. According to him, the term “gig” isn’t of Indian origin; it was coined in the US for a specific purpose. Companies like Uber adopted it as an effective way to engage workers, akin to traditional contract work. In the US, many students take on gigs for short periods, often to support their studies or as supplemental income while pursuing other goals. Yet, in India’s context, especially after the pandemic, the situation has shifted towards widespread unemployment, with a growing number of individuals working full-time in these roles.

According to Tripathy, given the substantial workforce now engaged in this mode of work, labelling it as “gig work” seems inadequate. It’s more apt to describe it as platform-based employment, a term even recognised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as digital labour platforms. The nature of this work varies across different countries. While individuals might be considered gig workers in the USA, the situation differs significantly in developing nations like India and Indonesia. In places like Indonesia, for instance, one finds a parallel scenario where countless individuals ride bikes to deliver food, reflecting the immense scale of platform-based work, he added. Thanks to Zomato and Swiggy, the same trend is now observed in India as well.

The growing gig/app-based economy

In a story titled ‘The Gig Economy’, way back in 2011, the Economist (September 16 issue) announced: Freelancing is the future of work. Policy must ease the way, not prop up the old job-centred model of the labour market. It argued that the “new technology and globalisation have changed the nature of work”, and this, in turn, has changed the idea of a job. The magazine reported:

“The labour market rewards individual capital, being adaptable, knowing your industry, keeping your skills fresh and having a network of peers. The best way to build this is by changing jobs more frequently; a good job now must enhance your personal skill set which you can take somewhere else. That is why even before the crisis, average tenure was declining and most job churn was voluntary. This is a large shift in our definition of what a good job means”.

Claiming that the gig workforce was ushering in a new economic revolution globally, and in India, which boasts of a demographic dividend of half-a-billion labour force and the world’s youngest population, rapid urbanisation, widespread adoption of smartphones and associated technology, gig economy was the new frontier of this revolution, stated a NITI Aayog report. It also estimated that:

* There were 68 lakh (6.8 million) gig workers in 2019-20, using both principal and subsidiary status, forming 2.4 per cent of the non-farm workforce or 1.3 per cent of the total workers in India.

* In 2020-21, 77 lakh (7.7 million) workers were engaged in the gig economy. They constituted 2.6 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce or 1.5 per cent of the total workforce in India.

* The gig workforce was expected to expand to 2.35 crore (23.5 million) workers by 2029-30, which amounted to 6.7 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce or 4.1 per cent of the total livelihood in India by 2029-30.

* The employment elasticity to GDP growth for gig workers was above one throughout the period 2011-12 to 2019-20, and was always above the overall employment elasticity. The higher employment elasticity for gig workers indicated that the nature of economic growth created greater demand for gig workers while not generating proportionate demand for non-gig workers.

* In terms of industrial classification, about 26.6 lakh (2.7 million) gig workers were involved in retail trade and sales, and about 13 lakh (1.3 million) were in the transportation sector. The retail sector saw an increase of 15 lakh (1.5 million) workers during 2011-12 to 2019-20, transport sector 7.8 lakhs (0.8 million), and manufacturing 3.9 lakhs (0.4 million).

* About 6.2 lakhs (0.6 million) were in the manufacturing sector and another 6.3 lakhs (0.6 million) in the finance and insurance activities.

* In the education sector, the expansion was from 66,000 to more than one lakh by 2019-20

Wretched state of Indian gig workers

On March 11, 2024, PAIGAM (People’s Association In Grassroots Action and Movement) & IFAT (Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers) released a survey report titled ‘Prisoners on Wheels?—Report on Working & Living Conditions of App-based Workers in India’. The study, conducted by PAIGAM in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and IFAT was based on a comprehensive, face-to-face survey data, collected from over 10,000 App-based cab drivers and delivery persons across eight Indian cities (Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore). In 2022, NITI Aayog published its inaugural report, revealing the presence of approximately 77 lakh gig and platform-based workers. However, the above report projects that the actual numbers may range significantly higher, potentially reaching around one and a half crore.

The report revealed a very pathetic condition of the gig workers it studied.

* Nearly 83 per cent cab drivers reported working for more than 10 hours in a day, while 78 percent delivery personnel worked for the same duration,

* Harsh work-related challenges faced by gig workers, across eight major cities in India, are taking a toll on their health, with an alarming 99.3 per cent of cab drivers and 98.5 per cent of delivery personnel experiencing anxiety, stress, and chronic pain due to their unscientific work culture.

* 43 per cent cab drivers reported a net monthly earning (that is after deducting costs such as food, fuel, vehicle maintenance and easy monthly instalments) of below Rs 15,000, while 34 per cent delivery persons reported a net monthly earning of Rs 10,000. This led to difficulty in managing household expenses, as experienced by over 70 per cent cab drivers and delivery persons reported.

* “The major reasons for such low earnings are unfair fares, commission rates and arbitrary deductions by the aggregator companies. Nearly a third of the respondents reported that companies are deducting between 31 and 40 percent of commission rate per ride, while the officially claimed figure by the companies themselves is 20 per cent,” the report said.

The above findings are not surprising in a country which in recent time has witnessed inequality at a historic high; wealth concentration shot up sharpest between 2014-5 and 2022-3. The Paris-based World Inequality Lab, in a paper titled ‘Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj’ has found, “by 2022-23, top 1 per cent income and wealth shares (22.6 per cent and 40.1 per cent) are at their highest historical levels and India’s top 1 per cent income share is among the very highest in the world, higher than even South Africa, Brazil and the US.” [7]

Legal aspects

Deepika MG and Madhusudhan M (2022), in their article in EPW, have very rightly identified a few unique characteristics of the gig economy which makes it difficult for policy makers to frame regulations. They mentioned a few distinguishing elements of gig work that bring complications in regulating the gig economy.

The most important one is the triangular relationship between the worker (producer), the end-user (customer) and the digital intermediary (platform provider or the aggregator). There exists some sort of a contract that governs the relationship between the producer and the aggregator. In this new model of work, “a network of contracts” substitutes long-term, stable employment relationships.

Second, the presence of control exerted by platforms on gig workers and the absence of social security measures led to contentious debates on whether the gig workers should be treated as “employees” or “independent contractors.” While the control exerted by platforms is the most important legal criterion for deciding the employee status, the nature of control over the conditions of work is central to regulating labour relations in the gig economy.

Third, the most cited reason in support of gig work is the flexibility and the freedom from bondage with the employers. While for some the gig economy represents the height of liberty, some others have called it “the new precariat” where the workers are left to fend for themselves. Scholars who look at the gig economy as a new form of capitalistic exploitation have questioned the labour relations of the gig workers and the nature of liberty associated with it.

According to the authors, a recent report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) advocates three criteria for adapting social protection system for gig workers: (i) insurance coverage to workers in all forms of employment, independent of the nature of contract; (ii) technology adoption for simplification of contribution and benefit payments; and (iii) instituting and strengthening universal, tax- financed mechanisms of social protection.

It is observed that in an attempt to incorporate the doctrine of universalisation of social security, the gig workers are brought into the ambit of the labour laws for the first time, with the provision of some welfare measures under the Code on Social Security, 2020. However, this has not yet been notified by the Union government.

Rajasthan has become the first state in India to pass a legislation, which regulates the engagement of gig workers and aims to provide social security and other benefits to platform-based gig workers. The Government of Rajasthan, on July 24, 2023, passed the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023.

Exploitation of gig workers: a global phenomenon

The Fair Work project which surveyed 38 countries and 180 platforms over a period of four years, interviewed more than 5,000 workers. It reports: “When workers are asked to do extra pieces of work

that aren’t included in the official service, they can’t say no – there’s this huge power imbalance…Clients have a lot more voice on the platform, and it means workers get drawn into extra or possibly unpaid work.”

It is reported that in November last year, a United Nations poverty expert sent letters to Amazon, DoorDash, and Walmart, demanding they address allegations of extremely low wages and misclassifying workers as contractors. According to him, the gig work wages in the US are so bad that they constitute a human rights issue.

Towards human rights economy

The rising inequality and the modern form of slavery had prompted the UN to urge on the eve of International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (December 2) to shift towards the human rights economy to prevent contemporary forms of slavery. A statement read: “paradigm of unsustainable and unequal growth promotes a race to the bottom where workers are treated as a disposable commodity in the name of maximising profits. We must work instead towards the realisation of a human rights economy that places people and the planet at the heart of economic policies, investment decisions, consumer choices, and business models to enhance the enjoyment of human rights for all in the long term”.

Observation

According to the latest data, 1,178 tech companies laid off 260,771 lakh employees globally in 2023. With the advent of AI, the job situation is likely to be gloomier. In such a situation, supply of gig workers will be on the rise, and human rights violations and slavery will surge. One possible way of extending support to these gig workers in particular, and to every citizen in general, is the introduction of a scheme, Universal Basic Income, for providing a regular, guaranteed payment to citizens, regardless of need. This idea has been around for centuries. However, the concept has risen to the national consciousness since around 2020. Much of renewed interest on the subject has to do with fundamental changes to the economy—namely, the growth of automation. Universal basic income (UBI) is a government program in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money regularly. It is high time that the global leaders think about its implementation at the earliest.

Views expressed are personal