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 concerning the implications of the continued labour legislation reform course of on platform and gig staff’ rights, has made a joint submission to the Ministry of Labour and Employment over the continued 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 staff 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 considerations relating to the implementation of platform staff’ 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 staff. It additionally seeks readability on the factors to find out exemption of aggregators from contributions to social safety and asks for assuring staff’ knowledge rights.

Below are the important thing calls for included within the submission made by the federation that represents 1000’s of staff linked with platforms together with Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, and Uber, amongst others. You can even learn the total submission on the Web.

• All platform staff ought to have a primary social safety flooring that will likely be regardless of their age. The provisions within the Draft Rules presently impose an age restrict for platform staff 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 the direction of a government-framed social safety scheme, additional readability ought to be offered on how these contributions will likely be assessed and what extent of social safety will likely be given in case platform staff are related to a number of aggregators concurrently.
• The ministry ought to spell out the circumstances below which aggregators may be exempted from contributing to platform staff’ social safety.
• A clear course of ought to be prescribed for the federal government’s nomination of platform staff’ representatives, with efficient illustration from commerce unions and staff’ organisations. There must also be readability on the structure of the National Social Security Board for Gig Workers and Platform Workers.
• Clear goal of accumulating staff’ knowledge ought to be offered, together with permitting them to have the fitting to edit, right, and dispute the data of aggregators. A mechanism for an audit has additionally been advised that have to be established by the federal government. Further, the employees ought to have the fitting 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 potential for a federated structure, with house for democratic and decentralised knowledge administration by staff themselves with involvement from state and native authorities companies.

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