Jul 15, 2024 05:17 PM IST
The government may create a social security fund for gig workers with medical and accident insurance cover along retirement benefits in the Union Budget 2024.
With the Union Budget 2024 scheduled to be presented on June 23 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the government is likely to create a social security fund for gig workers to provide medical and accident insurance cover alongside retirement benefits, CNBC-Awaaz reported, citing unnamed sources. HT couldn’t independently verify the information.
Who are gig workers?
Gig workers include temporary workers, people who work for online platforms like Swiggy or Ola, and independent contract workers in the construction sector, for examples.
Workers, aggregators and the government shall contribute to this fund and institutions like the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) may also be part of it to provide medical facilities to gig workers, the report read.
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The government has also made a proposal to include these facilities in the Social Security Code 2020, according to the report, which states that this comes at a time when the National Human Rights Commission reached out to the Ministry of Labour and Employment regarding reports of tough working conditions at Amazon’s Haryana warehouse.
What were the problems at Amazon’s Haryana warehouse?
Lack of restrooms, long working hours without toilet or water breaks, and ten-hour shifts for a ₹10,000 salary were some of the issues at Amazon’s Haryana warehouse.
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Amazon responded, stating that this was an ‘isolated’ incident and blamed the supervisor for it. However, the All India Gig Workers union led a country-wide protest in November 2023 due to 10-hour work schedules.
Is Karnataka a step ahead for gig worker welfare?
This also comes after Congress general secretary, in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh said that India requires a nationwide legal and social security architecture for gig workers and hoped that the Union Budget 2024 will do something about it, according to an Economic Times report.
“As much as state governments can do, India needs a national legal and social security architecture for gig workers. Their numbers are only projected to rise, from 77 lakhs in 2022 to about 2.4 crores in 2030. The ball is in the court of the Union Government. Hopefully the forthcoming Budget will take a step in this direction,” he said.
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The Karnataka government had released a draft proposal of the Karnataka Platform based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024, with a board, welfare fund and grievance cell.
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