Pressure Power Parity Insufficiency of Protection for the Digital Labour and Workers of the Gig Economy and the Dire Requirement of the Changes in the New Labour Code

Abstract

Abstract The labour jurisprudence through a wide-ranging literature has approached the topic from different angles and categorized the term worker as either an independent contractor or as an employee. This definition of worker does very little to nothing in the lives of the workers of new forms of labour. There has been in the rise an emergence of the new forms of labour which is an umbrella term that also includes the gig worker and platform labour under the term. This shift in the workforce has enabled them to have a source of income and flexibility and has caused a huge increase in the gig workers at more than 17% CAGR [Compound Annual Growth Rate] has made the lawmakers difficult to classify them under the current law. The new amendment brought out in the parliament has proposed to codify the labour laws. law which is supposed to govern the gig worker has not clearly defined them in the definition. The new code which is supposed to clear the confusion has brought more mist in the terms of definition of who is a “gig worker” and “platform worker” which allows it to open interpretation, which makes the code still archaic and incomplete. Even the new bill fails to provide clarity regarding the workers of the new forms. This paper tries to analyse the current situation of the gig worker more exactly the platform workers and what would be the implication of the new labour code in the lives of the gig workers. This paper also proposes a separate bill that shall solely deal with that of the workers of the newer forms of business which shall be included in the new labour code.