Gig workers have constitutional right in India to form unions, says TN Hari of BigBasket

Emerging tech businesses that employ gig workers should have a  mechanism to address their grievances on time and those trying to muzzle the voices of protest must face legal actions, said Bigbasket head of human resources TN Hari said on October 21.

Hari was speaking at Moneycontrol's Twitter Spaces panel What's Hot on  issues surrounding the gig workers in India. The panel, which also had Varun Khaitan, co-founder of Urban Company, Aditi Surie, sociologist from Indian Institute for Human Settlements, and Shaikh Salauddin, national general secretary of The Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers, was moderated by Priyanka Sahay, special correspondent, Moneycontrol.

Hari's remarks came after Salauddin expressed concern over the mistreatment many gig workers face when they try to raise their voices against the establishments they work with.

"It is a constitutional right in India to form unions. No company can stop and persecute anybody for forming it. That's the law of the land. If a person is vocal and speaking up whether on social media or at other places and a company is blocking this individual or taking punitive actions, it is completely illegal and that is not desirable at all," said Hari.

He suggested that mature companies should instead build trust with their workers and create spaces where they can have free conversations with them.

While companies are stepping up and trying to address some of the concerns of their gig workers, there's more room for improvement.

Earlier this week, online food delivery platform Swiggy announced a two-day period time-off for female delivery partners. Home services provider Urban Company, on the other hand, has announced a 12-point programme focusing on transparency in the earning components of the partners, besides increasing their net incomes.

When asked if Urban Company could also provide maternity benefits to its female partners, Khaitan said: "The suggestion of helping during maternity is an interesting one and something we will think about."

Urban Company is working on sensitising customers to provide drinking water as well as the use of bathroom facilities to the workers to visit customer homes.

Surie pointed out that the apps that most of these gig workers are associated with have bots or template questions. So the technology there addresses very specific concerns such as what to do if a customer doesn't respond or if someone puts a wrong address. But larger questions that people need to raise and get answers for are why are their earnings falling over the years or why are they being rated in a particular way.

"Those are very rarely responded to and there are very few companies that do it," she said.