Who is gaslighting the gig workers?

As midnight cravings dawned on me last weekend, in no time I found myself scrolling through a never ending list of food outlets. Within just 30 minutes of placing the order, I was frantically searching for my jacket, gathering the courage to get out of the blanket covers in the chilly winter night to look for my order, as I couldn’t reach out to the delivery boy.
As I stepped out I saw a young boy standing next to his rented e-bike. To my shock, as I reached near, he had no food parcels in his hand. On inquiring about it, he sobbingly started apologising to me.
Puzzled by this reaction, I calmly asked him about his concerns. With trembling voice he confessed that my food was spilled on the road as he met with a minor accident enroute. In a fraction of seconds, I experienced mixed emotions. Growling stomach and agonised mind had put me in a perplexed situation. In a soft pitch, he requested “Madam please meri complain mat karna varna order ke paise mere account se kat jayenge. Subah se raat tak kaam karke mein mushkil se hi kuch kama pata hu”. Consoling him, I handed him some funds for first aid.
At this point, I was steaming with questions, but with happy tears he left. Possibly rushing to deliver another order in the mad race of 10 min deliveries. This experience left me with a zillion questions as how these 7 lakh service providers of our country, also called Gig Workers put their life at risk every day, and yet have no job security and can be let go any day!
It is hard to conceive and even harder to face the grim reality of millions of youth of the country pushed down the rabbit hole of informal sector of un- organised labour.
The explosion of Gig Economy with the onset of Pandemic was a ray of hope, providing r eadily available flexible work in times of mass layoffs, catering to the west inspired glitter and glam of freelance lifestyle. The clutches of pandemic, restricting us to our four walls boosted the growth of these platform based apps. As the leaves of turmoil have now settled, we encounter the monstrous twin of the Gig economy and nightmare of the gig workers.
The need for hands-for-work, evolved the bubble of Gig Economy, which is expected to soon contribute 1.25% to the GDP of our country. Interestingly, as per a recent survey, India has emerged as the 5th largest country for flexi- staffing after US, China, Brazil and Japan. Yet it was unfortunate that gig economy’s breakneck pace of growth has not as yet been categorised as a formal economy.
But how does this matter, you may ask, considering it has been a harbinger of job opportunities?
Research studies indicate that participation in the gig economy is higher in developing countries (between 5 and 12 percent) versus developed economies (between 1 and 4 percent). Interestingly, most of these unsafe jobs are confined to the lower-income job-types such as deliveries, ridesharing, amongst others, suggesting a lack of alternative source of fruitful employment and increase in the unorganised labour share of our country.
With no formalisation, more than 7 lakh of these gig workers are bereft of basic employee benefits, minimum wage pay and live under constant fear of losing their job and even their lives at times, as the companies behind the veil of tech giants treat them as independent businessman and freelancers shrugging off all their liabilities onto the shoulders of such marginalised strata of the society.
Shattering the prism of unsustainable culture and forcing accountability, the courts abroad are taking a stand, as in Barbara Ann Berwick Vs UBER Technologies Inc., the labour court of California and in Mr Y Aslam Vs Uber BV & Others, the employment tribunal of London, have held that cab aggregators are in essence functioning as an employer of the drivers so registered on their platform.
As protests by gig workers see a rise across the globe and with Institution of law acting in their favour, the Companies may have to expedite their policy decisions. In a strange episode, just two months back, ‘Urban Company’ sued their protesting workers which has not been taken well by the industry
This model of economy is rather exploitative and deplorable wherein the business risk is often offloaded onto these gig workers. As the revenues of these giants are skyrocketing, the workers continue to witness a plummet in
their wages, where they are forced to work 12-16 hours a day to make ends meet, with almost negligent social security.
While the budget of 2022 saw no green light for the gig workers and as the barren promises of the Code on Social Security, 2020 is still in cold storage, the Corporations are fighting hard to keep their costs low and this exploitative model alive.
The failure of the State and the Companies to provide a safety net to these workers might just be the last prick in the bubble of Gig Economy.