Telangana Set to Become Third State to Introduce Legislation for Gig and Platform Workers

Hyderabad: Telangana is all set to introduce a legislation for gig and platform workers, on road to become the third state behind Rajasthan and Karnataka in doing so to ensure higher wages and social security for this section of workforce.

The Telangana government had already put forth the draft bill, titled ‘Telangana Gig and Platform Workers (Registration, Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025’, in public domain and invited suggestions. 

As many as 67 suggestions were received and they have all been incorporated in the fine tuned document which will be discussed at the next meeting of the state cabinet before it is formally tabled in the legislature, said labour minister G. Vivek Venkatswamy.

Venkatswamy, on Friday (June 26), held a stakeholders meeting that was attended by aggregators, workers, trade union leaders and civil society representatives to explain the objective of the government. As a first step, he said the government will make it mandatory for the aggregators to register the workers and send the data to a board to be constituted under the law. It will be a tripartite board with representation from government, aggregators and workers. 

"A one to two per cent cess will be collected from workers which will go to a welfare fund for them to be maintained by the board. This will eliminate financial burden on aggregators. As a next step, the government will explore ways to introduce minimum wages for workers," Vivek remarked. 

He added that the new law was contemplated in deference to the wish of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Telangana is home to about 4.20 lakh workers employed as cab, auto and bike drivers, delivery persons of e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit and Porter besides home service workers of Urban Company. Nearly 1.25 lakh of them are drivers, 1.60 lakh delivery boys and the rest work in other app based services. 

The wage earnings of the workers are highly unpredictable due to frequent changes in the rate cards for every set of service and every aggregator. The charges are determined by algorithmic calculations designed by the apps and are changed arbitrarily by the aggregators. 

A cab driver Syed Abdul Rawoof told The Wire that he earned only Rs 8 to 11 per kilometre of ride during non-peak hours in the absence of a fixed rate card whereas the auto drivers were assured Rs. 13 per kilometre and a minimum fare of Rs. 20. With such paltry earnings, Rawoof questioned his ability to pay monthly installments of loan on the purchase of his Rs 12 lakh car, meet diesel charges and make a living. 

The earnings picked up substantially, both for drivers and aggregators, in peak hours but the heavy traffic conditions and slow movement of vehicles which consumed higher fuel ate into them. The drivers were also penalised by police for traffic violations besides facing the threat of complaints by customers which often resulted in blocking their accounts. 

Police complaints for loss of articles of customers in cars was another nightmare haunting many drivers. 

In the case of delivery boys of e-commerce portals, their rating was downgraded for delays in reaching out to customers. One of them, T. Surender Reddy, said they were paid Rs 1 or 2 per kilometre in the first mile up to reaching a restaurant or any other pick up point after receiving the order and they get Rs 4 per kilometre in the second mile from the restaurant to the place of destination. 

Any loss of time in delivery due to obstructions on account of traffic signals will result in their rating going down. They are rated by gold, silver and bronze markers for the purpose of incentives and medical insurance. Festive seasons and Indian Premier League cricket matches afford them heavy incentives.

It is mental torture on roads as they received spam and voice messages from the aggregators for slow movement. Surender said that he worked for 14 to 16 hours a day with such pressure.

1. Santosh Kumar, a cab driver, said that customers on rides to the airport often pester them to drive fast but the speed guns at the airport are a bottleneck. He said that he ended up receiving challan of Rs. 1,000 each time for overspeeding.   

The founder president of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, Shaik Salauddin, said that they have been demanding minimum business guarantee for the workers and fair wages. He expressed hope that the new law would address the issue. 

The union also demanded minimum wages, legal recognition and mandatory registration of workers and algorithmic transparency from app based platforms. 

Rakshitha Swamy, founder of Safar, an organisation working for gig workers said the workers are treated like "freelance contractors", which was a deterrent to framing a tight policy framework.

The draft bill was made public inviting suggestions of stakeholders up to April 28. The bill mentioned the rights of workers, income security, work conditions, transparency in automated monitoring, social security and a welfare fund. 

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.