Between “Partner” And “Employee”: Platform Work, Algorithmic Control And The Unfinished Architecture Of Labour Protection In India
A Manish Jheevan, VIT Chennai, VITSOL
ABSTRACT
India’s platform economy has expanded faster than the legal categories meant to govern work. Delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers and home-service professionals are contractually styled “partners”, yet they work under pricing, allocation, rating and deactivation regimes that are set unilaterally by software. This paper examines how Indian labour law has responded. It traces the pre-codification position under the control, integration and economic-reality tests; analyses the first statutory recognition of “gig workers”, “platform workers” and “aggregators” in the Code on Social Security, 2020, which entered into force on 21 November 2025, and the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026; and maps the parallel state statutes of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand and Telangana. It argues that India has adopted a scheme-based, contribution-funded model that deliberately avoids the question of employment status, and that this choice leaves unresolved wages, algorithmic due process, collective bargaining and occupational safety. The paper further analyses the Article 254 repugnancy challenge pending before the Karnataka High Court, the constitutional claims under Articles 14, 19(1)(c), 21 and 23, and comparative developments in the United Kingdom, Spain, California, the European Union and Singapore. It concludes with a calibrated reform agenda: a rebuttable presumption of employment, an intermediate protected category, statutory algorithmic due process, and harmonised central–state financing.
Keywords: gig economy; platform workers; aggregators; Code on Social Security 2020; employment status; algorithmic management; Article 254; labour federalism.
