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The proposal to provide social security cover to gig workers by bringing them under the ambit of pension facility has almost been finalised by the Union Labour Ministry. It is proposed to take two percent contribution from aggregator companies to provide pension to gig workers.
According to reliable sources, the Labor Ministry has prepared a proposal to ask the aggregator companies to give a maximum of two percent of every transaction bill for the pension of gig workers, to which most of the companies have almost agreed.
Labor Ministry will send the proposal for approval
There are indications that the Ministry of Labor will soon send its proposal to the Cabinet for approval. Gig workers earn their livelihood outside the traditional employer-employee system. They are hired on the basis of payment for work. These people usually do work like driving cabs or online delivery through mobile apps. At present, the number of gig workers in the country is around one crore and if the pension facility starts, then all of them will get its benefit. The Ministry of Labor has also proposed to hand over the responsibility of operating the gig workers pension facility to the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO).
Sources said that after several rounds of talks, representatives of big aggregator companies like Flipkart, Amazon, Uber, Ola, Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit have agreed to contribute two percent of each transaction amount to the Gig Workers Pension Fund. Only after this, the Labor Ministry is preparing to send the pension proposal for cabinet approval.
Proposal to deposit two percent pension contribution in EPF
A senior official of the ministry refused to give details of the proposals, but said that this proposal is good for both gig workers and service provider-aggregator companies. That is why the companies have not opposed the proposal to deposit two percent of the billing amount in EPF as pension contribution.
It also proposes that gig workers will have the same EPF account number irrespective of how many aggregators or service providers they are working with. The contribution for each bill will be deposited in the same account. It is understood that the pension proposal for gig workers will give them two options after retirement. The first is to receive a lump sum payment of the entire pension amount accumulated during the entire job and the interest earned on it and the second is to receive a fixed amount every month in installments as income based on this entire amount.
The issues of gig workers came to the fore in the Lok Sabha elections
In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had raised the serious challenges of social security of gig workers and made it a major election issue. Earlier, some initial steps were announced to address the lack of social security amid the difficult and risky work of gig workers in Rajasthan, Telangana to Karnataka, which included a proposal to provide health insurance.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the government's intentions to provide social security benefits to gig workers in Budget 2025. After this, the process of registering gig workers on the e-shram portal has been started and soon they will also be provided with an ID card.
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