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26th July 2023 (5 Topics)

26th July 2023

QUIZ - 26th July 2023

5 Questions

5 Minutes

Editorials

Context

The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023 passed recently exemplifies labor laws drawing strength from past workers' struggles and adapting to new employer-employee relationships in the evolving gig economy. The act focuses on providing registration and welfare support to platform-based gig workers.

An employer cartel calls the shots

  • Absence of benefits or profit-sharing: In the case of transport-based workers (Uber), the app-based aggregator connects customers with drivers, charging a commission. Workers can face digital punishment or dismissal if they don't comply with company conditions.
  • Need to support through law: Companies globally have embraced market fundamentalism, evading responsibility for fair working conditions, leaving gig workers vulnerable to employer control, while the state's inadequate support reflects a lack of commitment to address the issue.
  • Significant breakthrough: The Rajasthan law marks a significant breakthrough as gig workers, their unions, and civil society demanded social security rights through a welfare law, challenging companies' resistance and advocating for workers' well-being amidst exploitative working conditions and lack of support.

The hamal model

  • Hamal Panchayat: Over 60 years ago, Maharashtra’s hamals formed the "Hamal Panchayat" union to address the challenges faced by unorganized sector workers, leading to the establishment of "Mathadi board" law.
  • Benefits: The law mandated registration of workers and merchants using hamals' labor, requiring shopkeepers to deposit workers' wages and a levy for social security schemes with the board, providing benefits like gratuity, health, and education benefits.
  • Social security: The successful implementation of this law enabled hamals to secure social security.

Enabling fair work, security

  • First successful law: The Rajasthan campaign advocated for a breakthrough Act centered around social security, making it the country's first gig worker-specific social security law.
  • Applied Mathadi Act: The Act applies Mathadi Act principles more accurately and efficiently to platform-based gig work.
  • Progressive: This law represents an essential advancement in fair work and social security, providing a foundation for more progressive laws for gig workers.
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