– It is a free market that operates on exchange of labour & resources through digital platforms.

– The jobs are flexible ,temporary and are adapted to the demand for flexible lifestyles.

– The Organisations contract with independent workers for short term engagements.

– International Labour Organisation (ILO) has identified it as one of the most important
new transformation in workfield.

– It includes food delivery, driving, cleaning , web designers, content developers, software developers etc . Eg : Swiggy, Zomato, Urban clap.

Key drivers :

– Giving boost to start up ecosystem in India where contractual freelancers are required to reduce the costs.

– Flexibility to work from anywhere.

– It helps businesses to hire workers on demand basis, reducing overhead costs by not paying for idle hours & not have to depend on fixed workforce.

– It also provides blue and grey collar workforce to earn higher incomes from different sources.

Major Issues:

– It is largely an urban phenomena.

– Gig workers donot have right to collective bargaining.

– They face occupational safety and health risk.

– Job and income insecurity like wages, working hours etc.

– Some companies give their workers fancy name like partners, associates but they donot even enjoy the rights of the workers.

– The workers are treated like second class citizens around the world.

Some countries are trying to provide adequate and sustainable protection to gig workers.That is why making laws for such work has become vital.

By :
Samridhi
Samarpan IAS dehradun.