The Supreme Court has agreed to examine if workers of app services such as Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Olacabs and other aggregators should be registered as workmen under Indian law and be provided social security.
The Division Bench of Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice B.R. Gavai issued notice today in the petition filed by the Indian Federation Of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT) seeking social security rights for “gig-workers” employed by online apps such as Ola, Uber, Zomato, Swiggy etc.
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, submitted that there are two major points which require the kind attention of the Supreme Court.
”First, we seek a declaration that these drivers/ delivery workers who work for organizations such as Uber, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, are actually workmen in the classical sense of the word as opposed to what these organizations claim that they are ” independent workers”. The world over and in the US, France and UK, they have been declared to be workers in Uber, and Uber maintains the same international standard over the world in the kind of contract they enter into between the driver and the Uber. Those contracts have been analyzed by the SC of the United Kingdom and they have held that the real relation between them is that of an employer and employee.”
The counsel drew the attention of the court towards the existing laws in the concerned area. The Code is not yet enforced. She argued that even under the existing law, they are entitled to social security benefits because they are entitled to registration and they would in any event fall within the definition of unorganized worker. That the petitioners are not covered under the definition of Unorganized worker in section 2 (m) of the 2008 statute regarding the Unorganized Workers Act which is in force today.
The Bench issued notice on the petition. According to the petition, “gig-workers” and “platform workers” are covered by the definition of “workman” within the meaning of all the social security legislation since they are in an employment relationship with the aggregators.
The petitioners have sought for formulation of specific schemes such as health insurance, maternity benefits, pension, old age assistance, disability allowance and completion of vaccination at aggregator’s cost on priority basis.
The respondent companies who own the apps exercise complete supervision and control over the manner and method of work with those who are allowed to register on the said apps, the petition highlighted.
Further, the petition seeks to classify various mobile app-based drivers and delivery gig workers and app-based workers as unorganized workers and bring them under the Workers’ Compensation Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Employees’ State Insurance Act and Maternity Benefit Act.
The gig-workers have also prayed for extension of distribution of food grains under the PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana to all App Based Workers irrespective of whether the App Based workers hold ration cards or not.
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