Labour Rights In The Digital Economy: Navigating AI Integration, Workplace Protection, And The Gig Revolution
- IJLLR Journal
- Nov 13, 2025
- 1 min read
Vaibhav Pandey & Astha Srivastava
ABSTRACT
India’s swift shift towards digitization has impacted the labour markets, the emergence of new categories of work, and the obsolescence of traditional employment and work models. This paper explores the nexus of A.I., digital platforms and labour within India's changing economy. Currently, the digital economy in India is 11.74% of G.D.P., accounting for ₹31.64 lakh crores (2022-23) with 14.67 million digitised economy workers who are five times more productive than traditional sectors within the economy. However, critically, this transition has caused gaps in labour protections that adversely affect disadvantaged and marginalised groups, specifically women, persons living with disabilities, and gig workers (a number predicted to rise to 23.5 million by 2029-30). By conducting an empirical, textual and contextual review of existing laws and standards, as well as evidence-based studies, this paper highlights systemic and structural issues surrounding worker rights in the digital economy and the relative absence of regulation and the need for broader reform agenda.
The study uses a mixed methods research paradigm, which draws on doctrinal analysis, comparative legal analysis, and empirical analysis from platforms workers, enforcement agencies and reports. The study finds that even though the Code on Social Security 2020 is the first to expressly acknowledge gig and platform workers in the Indian context of labour, there are barriers to implementation that leave millions of workers unprotected. The study proposes ways to create an effective framework for digital labour rights that allows for innovation in a manner that does not impede protections.
Keywords: Digital labour rights, artificial intelligence, gig economy, platform workers, workplace harassment
