Labour Min formulating transaction-based pension policy for gig workers | Business News
In an attempt to address the employability issues of gig workers who shuttle between multiple platforms, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is working on a transaction-based pension policy to offer social security benefits to nearly 1 crore platform workers in the country, a source said on Thursday.
“Since gig workers do not have a fixed wage with one platform, a universal account number assigned to each gig worker will enable deductions based on wage transactions with one or more platforms. The company contribution will also be on a per-bill basis. Discussions along these lines are taking place with the states, and the scheme will be sent for cabinet approval soon,” the source quoted above said.
Explaining the proposal, the source said that the division of the pension share between the gig worker and the employer will be specified in the same way as the Centre’s and states’ shares under Goods and Services Tax transactions.
The transaction-linked pension scheme is being proposed because the multiplicity of platforms acting as employers for a single gig worker creates complications in determining the employer responsible for social security contributions.
The benefits are linked with the e-Shram portal which was launched in August 2021 to register and support workers in unorganised sectors by providing them with a Universal Account Number (UAN) and creating a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW).
As of January 27, 2025, over 30.58 crore unorganised workers have registered on the e-Shram portal. So far, 12 schemes from different central ministries or departments have been integrated/mapped with e-Shram, the ministry said.
In a 2022 report, NITI Aayog stated that in 2020-21, 77 lakh workers were engaged in the gig economy. At present, approximately 47 per cent of gig work is in medium-skilled jobs, about 22 per cent in high-skilled jobs, and around 31 per cent in low-skilled jobs.
Story continues below this ad
The provision to provide social security benefits had been earlier included in the proposed Social Security Code, which has not been enacted yet. The Code proposes a National Social Security Board which shall recommend suitable schemes for different sections of unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers to the Centre. Also, as per the Code, aggregators employing gig workers will have to contribute 1-2 per cent of their annual turnover for social security, with the total contribution not exceeding 5 per cent of the amount payable by the aggregator to gig and platform workers.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
link
