Gig Policy

A gig worker?means a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer-employee relationship. This sector has been emerging fast in the digital revolution triggered by e-commerce platforms and the post-pandemic era which has brought flexibility and work from home.??

The gig economy plays a crucial role in filling the void in the industry which obstructs?timely access to the right talent pool with cost optimization by the businesses to maximise their profits. Realising their importance, the labour codes, which are in the process of becoming law, also seek to lay down effective provisions for providing adequate social security and other benefits to the gig workers. After all, they also do what permanent employees do for the businesses in most cases, which doesn’t justify any unwarranted discrimination or deprivation.??

A written contract or terms and conditions is the main document which governs relationship and mutual rights and obligations of the parties in such arrangements. Such contracts are made to rule out any inference of an employer-employee relationship. At the same time, it is imperative to put in place a policy for engagement of these gig workers with internal systems to ensure its effective implementation.??

Gig workers may have access and exposure to confidential and proprietary information of the employers and their customers such as sensitive personal information which is required to be dealt with according to the existing data protection norms. Depending upon their role and nature of work,?the gig workers?must be bound by non-disclosure and other restrictive covenants with proper remedies in the hands of the employers. The employees should be sensitised to ensure sharing of such information?with these gig workers only on need basis.??

Even though the arrangement with gig workers may be specific and for a short period of time, in some cases, it may require negotiation for specific and limited period non-compete restrictions.??

Skilling/upskilling may be required for gig workers to effectively complete the assigned tasks, which of course may have certain costs for the employers. This may require specific tasks to be completed and minimum term to be served by the gig workers so that the employers may reap the benefits of the?expenses incurred by them.??

The violation of the contractual terms by the gig workers may require legal action to be taken. A proper thought over strategy to handle such contentious issues may have to be captured in the policy.??

Once the labour?codes are implemented, the policy will have to be tweaked to ensure that the statutory and other benefits are also made available to the gig workers?without any discrimination apart from taking other measures as envisaged under the law.

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PUBLICATIONS (Click here?to view LexCognito - Legal Newsletter - Sep-October 2022)