Industry body IAMAI has urged the Karanataka government to put on "hold the legislative process around its draft bill on platform-based gig workers to give sufficient time for thorough consultations, as it flagged several "concerns" that can potentially "negatively impact" the ease of business in the state.
Among the various pain points, IAMAI has highlighted the possibility of a dual levy coming into play on social security and criticised a lack of clarity on how the proposed welfare fee contribution from aggregators to support the social security of gig workers will be utilised.
"While we appreciate the government's efforts to provide social security and welfare measures for gig workers, we believe that the draft bill, in its current form, raises several concerns and could hinder business operations and negatively impact the ease of doing business in the state," it said.
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Other concerns in the draft bill pertain to "overly harsh" clauses for offenses, "unrealistic expectations and obligations from aggregators," and "significant legal complexities" on account of the planned inclusion of gig workers' dispute redressal under the Industrial Disputes Act.
IAMAI also expressed worries over what it claimed was "ambiguity in the calculation of welfare fee contributions" and lamented that onerous data sharing requirements would pose significant challenges to the business operations of aggregators.
The submissions of IAMAI come against the backdrop of the Karnataka government's move to place in the public domain a draft legislation that seeks to regulate the social security and welfare of platform-based gig workers. The draft bill proposes the creation of a board, a grievance cell, and a and a welfare fund, among other provisions.
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Speaking to Moneycontrol, Manjunath Gangadhara, Additional Labour Commissioner (Industrial Relations), said, "We have received 26 objections and suggestions on the draft bill from representatives of aggregators, gig workers' unions, civil society groups, law firms, and others."
Meanwhile, several provisions of the bill have been flagged by industry body Nasscom. In a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the industry body reportedly pointed out, “The minimum notice period for termination, algorithmic disclosures, monitoring and tracking mechanisms (Central Transaction Information and Management System), and laying down terms of template contracts with platform gig workers along with the power to review such contracts are incompatible with the functioning of gig platforms and can adversely impact their operations in the state.”
As per Labour Department officials, the draft bill is scheduled for the monsoon session of Parliament, which will start on June 15. The deadline for objections and suggestions for the bill ended on July 10.
(With inputs from PTI)
