Platform Workers’ Unions Express Concerns Over Social Security Rules 2020

The Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), together with an alliance of labour unions and civil society organisations involved in regards to the implications of the continuing labour legislation reform course of on platform and gig employees’ rights, has made a joint submission to the Ministry of Labour and Employment over the continuing public session on the Draft Code on Social Security (Central) Rules, 2020. The submission, dated December 21, calls for for assuring a “basic social protection floor” for all gig and platform employees and defending their knowledge rights.

Signed by the federation alongside the All India Gig Workers Union, All India IT and ITeS Employees’ Union, All India Railwaymens’ Federation, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, and National Union of Seafarers of India, the memorandum underlines issues concerning the implementation of platform employees’ rights within the Draft Rules by the ministry. Civil society organisations together with Gender at Work, IT for Change, Kamgar va Majur Sangh, Centre for Internet & Society, Partners in Change, and Tandem Research are additionally amongst its signatories.

The submission raises a requirement for making social safety universalised for all platform employees. It additionally seeks readability on the standards to find out exemption of aggregators from contributions to social safety and asks for assuring employees’ knowledge rights.

Below are the important thing calls for included within the submission made by the federation that represents hundreds of employees linked with platforms together with Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, and Uber, amongst others. You also can learn the complete submission on the Web.

• All platform employees ought to have a primary social safety ground that will probably be regardless of their age. The provisions within the Draft Rules at present impose an age restrict for platform employees to be eligible for social safety which are demanded to be eliminated, alongside different eligibility standards. The Draft Rules must also clearly outline that people working with platform aggregators ought to solely be handled as a “platform worker” and never as an “agent” or “contractor”.
• While the Draft Rules point out that aggregators should contribute in direction of a government-framed social safety scheme, additional readability must be offered on how these contributions will probably be assessed and what extent of social safety will probably be given in case platform employees are related to a number of aggregators concurrently.
• The ministry ought to spell out the circumstances beneath which aggregators may be exempted from contributing to platform employees’ social safety.
• A clear course of must be prescribed for the federal government’s nomination of platform employees’ representatives, with efficient illustration from commerce unions and employees’ organisations. There must also be readability on the structure of the National Social Security Board for Gig Workers and Platform Workers.
• Clear function of amassing employees’ knowledge must be offered, together with permitting them to have the suitable to edit, right, and dispute the data of aggregators. A mechanism for an audit has additionally been prompt that have to be established by the federal government. Further, the employees ought to have the suitable to retain an authorized, machine-readable copy of their collected knowledge.
• Instead of going for a centralised database, the federal government ought to discover the opportunity of a federated structure, with area for democratic and decentralised knowledge administration by employees themselves with involvement from state and native authorities businesses.

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