Meeting on welfare of gig workers in Haryana held

Chandigarh, March 10

In an innovative move towards bolstering the support for gig workers across the state, the Labour Department on Saturday held consultative meeting with aggregators of service-based digital platforms on initiatives to integrate gig workers into the labour welfare schemes.

The consultation focused on introducing these welfare schemes to representatives from digital platform aggregators operating within the state.

Additionally, the department discussed the registration process for both aggregators on the department’s website and gig workers on the e-Shram platform.

Gig workers, who typically do not fall into traditional employer-employee relationships and often work as part-time workers or are associated with multiple digital platforms, are the focus of these new initiatives. Such workers, including delivery personnel from Swiggy, Zomato, and Amazon, and drivers for Ola, Uber, and Indrive, among others, are vital to the digital economy, providing essential services across a range of sectors.

Recognising the pivotal role these workers play, the Labour Department has developed a registration module for aggregators on its website. This step will enable aggregators to register and thereby facilitate their gig workers in availing of the welfare schemes specially devised for them. Strategies for increasing the awareness among the workforce were also discussed.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Rajeev Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Labour Department, Government of Haryana, today. Maniram Sharma, Labour Commisioner, Haryana, and Paramjeet Singh Dhull, Joint Labour Commissioner, Haryana, and senior consultants of the Labour Department were also present in the meeting. Aggregators such as Ola, Uber, Tata 1mg, Zomato, Swiggy, Bluesmart, were among those who participated in the meeting.