Invisible Employer, Visible Exploitation: Employer-Employee Relationship In The Gig Economy Under Labour Law
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 30, 2025
- 2 min read
Kartavya Tenguria, Amity University Lucknow
Astha Srivastava, Assistant Professor at Amity University Lucknow
ABSTRACT
This paper basically calls the reality of India’s gig economy—Uber drivers, Zomato delivery workers, Amazon couriers, and all those gig people hustling through apps. These companies? They play a tricky game. Instead of acting like actual employers, they just call themselves “platforms” or “intermediaries” and dodge basic responsibilities. So, what happens? Workers have to suffer over—no job security, no fair pay, no real safety net. Algorithms are the new bosses, and they don’t care if such workers get sick or can’t pay their rent.India’s labor laws? They’re ancient, still stuck in the old-school factory mindset. If you’re a gig worker, good luck getting stuff like health insurance or paid leave—most of the time, you’re invisible to the system. The government did try with the Code on Social Security in 2020, but honestly, it acts on the surface only and not on the core issue. It’s optional, barely enforced, and doesn’t really change much.Some states, like Rajasthan and Karnataka, have thrown out their own ideas for protecting gig workers—registering them, giving them ways to file complaints, maybe a bit of social security. Not bad, but it’s all patchy and lacks any recognition on a national level.Courts in India (and even the UK and US, for that matter) are still scratching their heads, trying to figure out what to call gig workers. Are they employees? Contractors? Something else? This confusion just lets companies wriggle out of giving people their rights. Therefore, the paper says India needs to wake up and drag its labor laws into the 21st century. Gig workers deserve real rights, legit protections, and transparency about how they’re managed by these faceless algorithms. It’s not just about following rules—it’s about basic fairness and treating people with decency. If nothing changes, we’re basically saying it’s fine for millions to stay stuck in second- class jobs.
Keywords: Labor Law, Gig Worker, fairness, algorithm.
