Gig firms need to contribute 5% of workers’ wages for social security by June 30, draft rules say

Firms in India’s gig economy will have to contribute up to 5% of the wages payable to workers as contribution towards a National Social Security Fund and they will have to pay provisional contribution, as assessed, by June 30

Firms in India’s gig economy, known as aggregators and platforms, will have to contribute up to 5% of the wages payable to workers as contribution towards a National Social Security Fund and they will have to pay provisional contribution, as assessed, by June 30, the labour ministry’s draft rules to operationalise a new social security law show.

According to the draft, gig and platform workers will have to be employed for 90 days with an aggregator in the last financial year to qualify for social security benefits under the Code on Social Security 2020. (PTI)

According to the draft, gig and platform workers will have to be employed for 90 days with an aggregator in the last financial year to qualify for social security benefits under the Code on Social Security 2020. Workers who take up employment with multiple aggregators will need to be employed for 120 days to avail of the allowances.

The Union government on November 21 last year announced the implementation of four labour codes passed by Parliament in 2019-20 meant to replace a welter of complex, British-era legislation.

The Code on Social Security, one of the laws, provides for social security benefits to gig workers for the first time. India’s gig economy, especially rapid-delivery platforms parceling out stuff in under 10 minutes, is proving to a vital provider of employment.

However, workers’ groups, who say they face poor work conditions and wages, called for a strike on New Year’s Eve, a busy time for home delivery of everything, from cakes to gifts.

On Tuesday, a prominent gig workers’ union said the cut-offs for receiving social benefits in the draft rules don’t match actual work patterns. This could mean very little benefit, it said. “Most gig workers would miss the threshold for social security payouts,” said Shaik Salauddin, founder president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union.

Salauddin referred to a post on X by Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Eternal, which owns quick commerce platforms such as Zomato and Blinkit, in which he said: “In 2025, the average delivery partner on Zomato worked 38 days in the year and 7 hours per working day, reflecting true gig style participation rather than fixed schedules.”

Goyal’s post further said that “demanding full-time employee benefits like PF (provident fund), or guaranteed salaries for gig roles doesn’t align with what the model is built for”.

Raminder Uppal, a labour activist who advises gig workers’ unions, said the draft rules don’t specify how aggregator firms will calculate their contributions towards a social security fund when gig workers shift between platforms. “The rules are also ambiguous whether contributions will be the same for all kinds of platforms and what the provisional contributions will be for the current and past financial year,” he said.

Section 114 of the Code on Social Security, 2020 empowers the Union government to frame welfare schemes for gig and platform workers, covering benefits like life and disability insurance, health, maternity and old-age support, funded by aggregators, the government or other sources.

Aggregators shall be required to “share the details of gig workers or platform workers who are engaged with such aggregators on the designated Portal of the Central Government for generation of a Universal Account Number”, which will be used in administering social security.

Contribution collected from aggregators under “section 114 shall be maintained as part of the Social Security Fund in a separate account meant for gig workers or platform workers as specified in sub-section (2) of section 141”, the draft states.