Revitalising Worker’s Rights for the Gig Economy

In the last week of May 2025, delivery workers at Zepto went on strike in Hyderabad, demanding equitable pay, structured working hours, and social security. This incident is not isolated — across India, gig workers, who are the lifeline of near-instant gratification platforms like Swiggy, Blinkit, and Ola, have staged protests against financial precarity, a lack of healthcare benefits, and job insecurity. 

A NITI Aayog report titled ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’ estimated that India had 7.7 million gig workers in 2020-21 and by 2030, that would almost triple to 23.5 million. Yet, these key players in the modern work ecosystem operate in a legal grey zone — they are often classified as “partners” or “independent contractors” that make it simple for corporate employers to exempt them from traditional labour protection laws. 

This makes gig workers vulnerable to arbitrary deactivation and wage manipulation in the absence of grievance redressal mechanisms. In Varanasi, over 150 Blinkit delivery workers had their IDs blocked without notice after staging a strike. They were subsequently coerced into signing legal agreements for access to be reinstated. 

For platforms, legalistic disavowals play in their favour: they are classified as technology platforms and hire contract workers through third-party vendors, who then become responsible for worker pay and wellbeing. While the Indian government announced legal and policy frameworks at the wake of the pandemic, such as labour codes, including the Code on Social Security, 2020 that formalised recognition of gig workers and promised to extend welfare benefits, much of this has remained largely unenforced. 

Against this backdrop of a new workforce that is squeezed between legal ambiguity and corporate negligence, labour unions are making a fresh reappearance, reasserting their relevance and necessity. 

Unions: Revival of a Legacy

Unions represent a continuation of India's century-long tradition of worker advocacy that began with the Madras Labour Union founded in 1918 by B.P. Wadia and V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar. This pioneering union became a turning point for workers who could at last push back against exploitative working conditions at the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills. The set the stage for broader demands that would eventually shape India's labour laws: the eight-hour workday, maternity leave, minimum wages, and legal protections for industrial workers.

Today's gig worker struggles echo these foundational concerns of fair wages, dignified working conditions, and basic protections, making it evident that while the workplace has transformed from textile mills to digital platforms, the fundamental need for collective worker power to demand just work conditions remains unchanged. 

The coordinated strike action by Zepto workers, for instance, was mobilised by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) that legitimised the disenfranchised through collective bargaining power and recognition. Since its establishment in 2021, TGPWU’s victories include helping workers realise benefits of the Code on Social Security (Central) Rules, 2020, obtaining a tax waiver for large commercial vehicles during the pandemic, securing free parking and facilities at the Hyderabad Airport, and negotiating improved terms of employment with cab aggregators like Ola and Uber. 

The union has also advocated for broader policy reforms, including legislation in Telangana similar to the Rajasthan Platform-based Gig Workers Act 2023. TGPWU's organisational strength has grown substantially since its formation, with over 1,000 active members and 10,000+ registered members since its inception. 

Unions are pivotal for addressing fundamental structural inequities in modern labour markets. An Economic Policy Institute report finds that unionised workers in the U.S. earn ~10.2% higher wages than those who are non-unionised. The study also emphasises that union workers are far more likely to receive health coverage, predictable work schedules, and additional benefits like paid sick days.

Take the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), for instance. The AWU reinstated COVID hazard pay for data centre workers, secured millions of dollars in raises for Raters, helped data centre workers regain $200 weekly attendance bonuses, and drove policy changes that equalised wages and benefits for all workers, transparency in hiring practices, and protection of user privacy. After AWU’s success, the National Labor Relations Board in the U.S. received 2,510 union representation petitions in FY22, a 53% increase from the 1,638 petitions filed in FY 2021, and the highest number filed since FY15. 

Most immediately, unionisation provides gig workers with collective bargaining power that can tackle arbitrary wage cuts, opaque policies, and algorithmic control that currently plague the gig economy. More broadly, unions organise workers to push back against the asymmetry of power that underscores modern workplaces.

Research from the International Labour Organization shows that about two-thirds of platform workers across 14 European countries hold positive attitudes towards unions. Labour economics evidences how unions strengthen blue collar equitability and grow the economy at large, with pro-union policy making a real difference to middle-class households by raising their incomes, improving their work environments, and boosting their job satisfaction. 

Government and New-Age Businesses: Pieces of the Puzzle

Yet, unions alone cannot do all of the heavy-lifting. They are mechanisms of advocacy. Government support and private sector collaborations are imperative to build operational ecosystems that provide the infrastructure for credible reforms.

For instance, India’s Budget 2025 move to include unorganised workers in the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), India’s flagship health insurance scheme launched in 2018, is a step in the right direction. It offers up to ₹5 lakh in annual coverage per family for gig workers who can access the benefits by registering on the e-Shram portal with their Universal Account Number (UAN).

Meanwhile, private ventures and tech platforms need to step up their game to level the playing field for gig workers. Take the example of Malt. Headquartered in Paris, the freelancer platform safeguards its gig workers through insurance coverage of up to €5M per claim, ensures secure and prompt payments, legally vets standardised contracts, and provides compliance support to prevent worker misclassification. Malt also offers contingency planning and transparent billing.

In India, Flexing It covers some ground in terms of transparency in pay, rate benchmarking, contract support, and training. The platform helps with immediate concerns for gig and freelance workers such as getting paid on time and fairly. Uplers is another platform that eases stability by providing longer-term remote contracts rather than one-off gigs. It pre-vets Indian talent and matches them with global companies, offering predictable monthly income, paid time off, and even medical insurance—blurring the line between freelance autonomy and full-time job security. 

However, the vitality of gig workers depends on a broader shift towards formalising both white-collar and blue-collar gig work through innovations that provide a full suite of compliance and insurance protections. Gig and independent workers need consistency, fair pay, legal protection, and professional credibility in a rapidly expanding freelance economy. Such solutions can help redefine independent work and streamline a workforce that is quickly becoming the backbone of a modern economy. 

What The Future Holds

As Chandrasekhar Sripada, Clinical Professor of Organisational Behaviour, ISB notes, “It is true that labour unions will step in if the key issues of gig workers are not addressed by employers and government for long. It is important to adequately and proactively understand the needs of Gig Workers and implement helpful programmes that level the playing field for all workers, regardless of whether they are on factory floors or logging into platforms. The good news is that we are seeing some of those progressive solutions come in from the private sector itself, along with updated government regulations.”

As the labour income share fell globally from 53.0% in 2014 to 52.4% in 2024, meaning labour income globally would have been US$1 trillion higher if the share had remained unchanged, the imperative for collective action has never been more urgent. Whether that’s through traditional unions, government schemes, innovative platforms, or a combination of all, the goal is to ensure that the future of work does not come at the cost of worker rights.

Image Credit: Dat Dao from Pixabay