Gig Worker Or Employee? Interpreting The Employment Boundary In The Code On Social Security 2020
Atharva Kamle, National Law Institute University
ABSTRACT
The Code on Social Security 2020 recognises gig and platform workers through definitions that place their work outside a traditional relationship between an employer and an employee. This raises a question: does statutory recognition merely extend protection to persons who are not employees, or does it prevent persons working through platforms from establishing employee status? This paper argues for the former construction. The actual relationship must be examined before the person is placed in a category outside employment. A contractual description or welfare registration cannot, by itself, resolve that enquiry. The paper examines the interaction between the employee definition, the gig work definitions and Chapter IX. It draws on the Supreme Court’s employment status decisions, including Silver Jubilee Tailoring House, Shining Tailors, Workmen of Nilgiri Cooperative Marketing Society and Balwant Rai Saluja. It also considers how far courts can interpret the Code without adding to its provisions. The proposed approach preserves both the separate welfare framework and the possibility of proving disguised employment. It does not presume that every platform worker is an employee or that employee status automatically establishes every statutory entitlement.
Keywords: statutory interpretation, gig workers, platform work, employment status, contract of service, social security.
