India drafts new Social Security Code, proposes 90-day work a year for gig workers to get benefits

In the new Social Security Code draft released for public comments, the government of India proposed that Gig and platform workers need to work for at least 90 days with an aggregator in a financial year to avail social security benefits. For workers who are working with multiple aggregators, the threshold extends to 120 days.

According to The Times of India, the proposed conditions start to apply right from the day the workers start earning income, regardless of the amount. If the worker is associated with multiple aggregators, their days of work will be counted cumulatively across all platforms. For instance, if a gig worker is working with three platforms on the same day, it will be counted as three days.

The rules also clarified that the workers who are eligible under this criterion will include all such workers engaged by the aggregator directly or through an associate company, subsidiary, limited liability partnership or through a third party, TOI reported.

What are the benefits under the new regulations?

As per the report, the new labour code mandates numerous social security benefits such as health, life and personal accident insurance for gig workers and other arrangements that the government may propose. The Ministry of Labour has already started registering gig workers on the ’e-Shram’ portal and will be part of ‘Ayushman Bharat’.

They may also be eligible for a pension later based on contributions by both the platforms and gig workers. The rules mentioned that all gig workers above 16 years of age need to have Aadhaar-linked registration, with each aggregator sharing details of their gig and platform workers on the Centre’s designated portal for the generation of a universal account number, unless the worker is already registered.

As per the proposal, every eligible registered gig and platform worker will be issued an identity card, digital or otherwise. Apart from this, the draft notification laid out to the public called for the composition of the National Social Security Board, which will be responsible for assessing the number of gig workers and platform workers, identifying new types of aggregators and formulating welfare policies for them.

The proposed board will have five representatives, who will be nominated by a government-formed association of unorganised sector workers and employers. The proposal also maintains that the gig workers will become ineligible for social security benefits once they turn 60, or if they haven’t worked for 90 days with an aggregator – or 120 days across multiple aggregators – in the previous fiscal year.