Gig and platform workers, and a category still settling
Recognised in the Social Security Code, engaged outside a traditional employment relationship, and surrounded by questions that are not yet resolved.
What it is
Workers engaged outside a traditional employer-employee relationship, including through digital platforms.
Where it comes from
The Code on Social Security, 2020 defines gig and platform workers and contemplates schemes for them.
The trap
Assuming the label removes obligations. Whether a relationship is employment turns on substance, not on classification.
The Code on Social Security, 2020 recognises gig workers — those performing work outside a traditional employer-employee relationship — and platform workers, who access work through a digital platform.
It is a genuinely new category in Indian labour law, and one where a good deal remains to be settled in practice.
What the Code contemplates
The Code provides for social security schemes for gig and platform workers, funded in part by contributions from aggregators computed as a proportion of turnover, and for registration of such workers.
The framework exists in the legislation. The extent to which it is operational, and how the obligations apply to a given business, depends on the commencement and the rules — which is why anybody planning around it should check the current position rather than rely on a summary, including this one.
Classification is decided by substance
This is the part that does not change. Whether a working relationship is employment is decided by what actually happens: control over how the work is done, integration into the business, exclusivity, who provides the tools, and how the person is paid.
A contract describing somebody as an independent contractor does not make them one. Businesses that engage a substantial workforce on that basis, while directing their work in the way an employer would, are exposed to that being reconsidered — with the arrears that follow.
Be honest about which one you have
The practical advice is unglamorous. If the people doing your core work are directed, rostered and supervised like employees, treat them as employees. If they genuinely are not, document what makes that true.
The expensive outcome is the arrangement chosen for its cost and defended afterwards on paperwork that does not match how the work is actually done.
Gig and platform workers FAQs
Are gig workers entitled to PF and ESI?
Not in the way employees are. The Social Security Code contemplates separate schemes for gig and platform workers rather than extending the existing ones, and the operative position depends on the rules in force. Check the current position for your situation.
Can we engage our regular staff as gig workers?
Not if the substance of the relationship is employment. Classification is decided by how the work is actually controlled and organised, not by the contract's label, and reclassification brings arrears with it.
Does Klok handle non-employee workers?
It can hold them with their own engagement type, attendance and payment structure. What it will not do is decide the classification for you — that is a legal question about your specific arrangement.
Are gig workers covered by social security?
The newer social security framework contemplates coverage for gig and platform workers, with implementation staged. Assuming permanent exclusion is increasingly unsafe.
Does engaging them through an app change the position?
The substance of the relationship matters more than the contracting mechanism. Control, exclusivity and integration into the business are what get examined.
Should gig workers be on our attendance system?
If you direct when and where they work, you are already treating them as workers in substance, and keeping the record protects you as much as them. Deliberately not recording it does not weaken the argument against you.
Stop working this out by hand
Klok applies these rules on every payroll run, from your own attendance and salary data, with the working shown.