Social Security Framework for Gig Workers

A gig worker performs work and earns from activities outside a traditional employer-employee relationship; platform workers obtain such work through online platforms. The Code on Social Security, 2020 creates an enabling framework for their registration, welfare schemes, institutional representation and financing, rather than prescribing one uniform package of immediately payable benefits.

Coverage and institutional mechanism

The Code recognises gig workers and platform workers as distinct categories. Platform work is digitally mediated, while gig work is the broader category of non-traditional work arrangements.

• Under Section 113, eligible gig and platform workers must register through self-declaration and prescribed documentation to access applicable schemes.
• The National Social Security Board recommends suitable schemes, advises the Central Government and monitors their implementation, with representation for gig and platform workers and aggregators.

Social security benefits

Under Section 114, the Central Government may frame and notify schemes specifically for gig workers and platform workers.

• Schemes may cover life and disability, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, old-age protection and crèche facilities.
• The government may add other benefits according to the workers' social security needs.
• Actual entitlements, eligibility conditions and delivery mechanisms depend upon the schemes and rules notified under the Code.

Financing the framework

Schemes may be financed by the Central Government, jointly by the Central and State governments, through aggregator contributions, corporate social responsibility funds or a combination of permitted sources.

• The notified aggregator contribution must be between 1 and 2 per cent of annual turnover and cannot exceed 5 per cent of the amount paid or payable by the aggregator to gig and platform workers.
• The Code provides for a Social Security Fund for the welfare of unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers.

How UPSC asks this