What Does the Social Security Code Require for Gig Workers?

A gig worker is someone who earns from a work arrangement outside a traditional employer-employee relationship, under section 2(35) of the Code on Social Security, 2020. Section 2(60) defines platform work as a work arrangement outside that same relationship in which organisations or individuals use an online platform to reach other organisations or individuals, to solve specific problems or provide specific services, in exchange for payment. Section 2(61) makes anyone engaged in or undertaking that work a platform worker. So every platform worker is a gig worker, but not every gig worker is a platform worker. Section 2(2) defines an aggregator as a digital intermediary or a marketplace for a buyer or user of a service to connect with the seller or the service provider.

A freelance designer who finds clients by word of mouth is a gig worker with no aggregator. When the same designer takes jobs through an app, the app operator is the aggregator, and section 114 makes it the liable party.

Gig workers and platform workers are recognised for the first time in Indian social security law. Before the Code, the employment statutes did not cover someone earning through an app because there was no employer, and the unorganised-sector provisions had no applicable category for them.

Meghna runs a logistics company with 200 warehouse and office staff on payroll, who are employees, and a delivery app with 900 delivery partners, who are platform workers. Different chapters of the same Code govern the two groups, so she needs two ledgers, and a person can only be in one of them at a time. A contested classification is decided by applying the definition in each Code, and the duties that result change with the answer.

Sections 113 and 114 of the Code commenced on 21 November 2025, and the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 came into force on 8 May 2026. Worker registration is required under section 113, and the aggregator's reporting duties are imposed by the Rules. Every aggregator had to share the details of its engaged gig and platform workers on the designated Central portal by 22 June 2026, forty-five days from 8 May 2026, and the duty remains due now that the date has passed. Contributions are not yet payable: section 114(5) provides that the date on which aggregator contributions start must be notified by the Central Government, and no such notification has issued. No scheme under section 114(1) has been notified either.

The aggregator's contribution becomes payable once the Central Government notifies its rate under section 114(4) and its start date under section 114(5); a worker can claim a benefit only under a scheme notified under section 114(1).

The Code on Social Security is one of India's four Labour Codes; its sections are in force from their commencement dates, and its Rules have been made. A platform that has done nothing since 21 November 2025 has not complied with the four duties that already apply (registration under Rule 49(5) and reporting under Rule 48(2)(b), (c) and (g)), none of which involves a payment. A press release, a Budget speech or a State bill does not bring a section into force or make a Rule, and none of them starts a duty.

Rajasthan (Act No. 29 of 2023), Karnataka (Act No. 72 of 2025), Bihar (Act No. 8 of 2025) and Telangana (Act No. 21 of 2026) have enacted State legislation for platform-based gig workers, with their own boards, welfare fees and registration. The Karnataka Act is deemed to have come into force on 30 May 2025; the other three come into force on a date the State Government notifies. The Karnataka and Telangana Acts provide that the welfare fee collected under them counts as the contribution payable under section 114(4) of the Code. A platform operating in Karnataka can therefore owe an amount under State law while no contribution is payable under section 114.

The Seventh Schedule, referred to in section 114(4), lists nine classes: ride sharing services; food and grocery delivery services; logistic services; e-market place, both marketplace and inventory model, for wholesale or retail sale of goods or services, business-to-business or business-to-consumer; professional services provider; healthcare; travel and hospitality; content and media services; and any other goods and services provider platform. Because the ninth class is a residual one, almost every platform falls within the Schedule.

Under Rule 48(2)(f), an eligible gig and platform worker includes every such worker engaged by the aggregator directly or through an associate company, holding company, subsidiary company, limited liability partnership, or a third party, using the meanings assigned to those terms in the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008.

Devika is finance head at a Bengaluru quick-commerce platform with annual turnover of ₹10 crore excluding Central tax, levy and cess. The platform paid ₹1 crore last financial year to 1,800 delivery partners, and 400 of those partners are engaged through a logistics subsidiary rather than by the platform directly. Under Rule 48(2)(f) all 1,800 count as the platform's workers for these purposes.

Section 113(1) requires every unorganised, gig or platform worker to be registered, subject to two conditions: completion of sixteen years of age or such age as the Central Government prescribes, and a self-declaration submitted electronically or otherwise. Section 113(2) provides for the worker to apply with documents including an Aadhaar number, and requires the electronic system to allow self-registration. Section 113(3) states the effect of registration: a registered worker "shall be eligible to avail the benefit of the concerned scheme framed under this Chapter".

The Rules, rather than section 113, impose four duties on the aggregator:

Rule 48(2)(d) provides for an identity card, digital or otherwise, issued to every eligible registered gig and platform worker, which must be made available to the worker. Rule 48(2)(g) requires every aggregator to share the details of its engaged gig and platform workers electronically, monthly or at such other periodicity as the portal specifies, so that their particulars can be updated, and under Rule 48(2)(h) a worker whose particulars are not updated may not be eligible to avail scheme benefits. Rule 49(5) governs the platform's registration, while section 3 governs establishment registration.

The proviso to Rule 48(2)(e) requires that an eligible worker has been engaged as a gig and platform worker for not less than ninety days with an aggregator, or, in the case of multiple aggregators, not less than one hundred and twenty days, in the last financial year. Rule 49(4) applies the same thresholds to loss of eligibility: a registered worker ceases to be eligible when he attains sixty years of age, or when he has not been engaged for ninety days with any aggregator, or one hundred and twenty days across several, in the last financial year.

The 120-day condition for multiple aggregators applies to a worker engaged with two platforms; the proviso does not say whether such a worker can also qualify on ninety days with one of them. The Explanation to Rule 48(2) contains three counting rules:

1. A worker is engaged for one day if he earned income, irrespective of the amount, for work rendered with the aggregator on that calendar day. A single completed delivery for which he earned income makes that calendar day an engaged day.
2. Where he works with multiple aggregators, the days are calculated cumulatively across them.
3. Engagement with three aggregators on a particular calendar day counts as three days.

A worker active on two apps every day for two months therefore has 120 counted days from 60 calendar days and meets the 120-day threshold for multiple aggregators.

Arun worked 70 days for one platform and 55 days for another in the last financial year. He does not meet the 90-day condition for a single aggregator, because 70 is short of 90 and that condition is measured on engagement with one aggregator only; he meets the 120-day condition for multiple aggregators, because 70 plus 55 is 125 cumulative days, which exceeds 120. Whether any of those days overlapped makes no difference, because under the Explanation to Rule 48(2) each engagement is counted separately.

Rule 48(2)(e) opens "In order to be eligible for any benefit under any scheme framed under the Code", and no scheme has been framed, so a worker who meets a day threshold has no benefit to claim yet. The Central Government may also notify eligibility conditions in addition to registration. So the day counts are one of the conditions for who would qualify when a scheme is notified, and a platform that starts counting now will have the data.

Section 114(4) specifies the contribution basis, and the Central Government must notify both the rate and the commencement date before payment is required; neither has been notified, so nothing is payable yet and no interest runs. The rate is "not exceeding two per cent., but not less than one per cent., as may be notified by the Central Government", of the annual turnover of an aggregator in a Seventh Schedule category. The proviso caps it: the contribution "shall not exceed five per cent. of the amount paid or payable by an aggregator to gig workers and platform workers". Under the Explanation, annual turnover excludes any tax, levy and cess paid or payable to the Central Government, so a State levy is not excluded from annual turnover. Section 114(5) requires notification of the commencement date: "The date of commencement of contribution from aggregator under this section shall be notified by the Central Government."

The cap governs where 5% of payouts is less than the notified rate applied to turnover, so which figure governs depends on each platform's turnover and payouts. On Devika's figures, all illustrative:

The 5% cap is calculated on the amount paid or payable to gig and platform workers, and the proviso to Rule 49(3)(a) requires that figure to include workers engaged through an associate, holding or subsidiary company, a limited liability partnership or a third party. So the cap is computed on the same population of workers that is reported on the portal.

The Rules already prescribe payment procedures to apply once a commencement date is notified. Rule 49(1)(a) provides for the Central Government to designate an officer or agency to collect and spend the contributions, and Rule 49(1)(c) provides for them to be kept in a separate account for gig and platform workers within the Social Security Fund under section 141(2). Rule 49(3)(a) provides for each aggregator to assess its contribution in Form XX and pay a provisional contribution for the preceding year by 30 June of the current year, and Rule 49(3)(b) for a final return in Form XXI by 31 October, after the audited accounts are finalised under the Income-Tax Act, 2025, the Companies Act, 2013 or the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. Rule 49(3)(c) requires a refund of any excess, claimed in the same Form XXI, within ninety days of the claim. Rule 49(2) charges interest at one per cent for every month or part of a month from the due date until payment, on a contribution payable under section 114(4) that is not paid in time.

The date from which a first payment could be late depends on the section 114(5) commencement date, which has not been notified. Separate PF and ESI contribution rules apply to the same platform's payroll employees.

Recognition does not make a gig worker an employee: section 2(35) defines a gig worker as a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of a traditional employer-employee relationship, and section 2(60) defines platform work with the same words.

The Code defines these workers in sections 2(35), 2(60) and 2(61), provides for their registration in section 113 of the Code and Rule 48 of the Rules, and provides for funding in section 114(3), which allows a scheme to be funded wholly by the Centre, jointly with a State, wholly from aggregator contributions, partly from beneficiaries, from a corporate social responsibility fund within the meaning of the Companies Act, 2013, or from any other source. Section 114(6) also makes the National Social Security Board the Board for these workers, with five representatives of aggregators and five of gig and platform workers replacing two of the classes in section 6(2).

Gig and platform workers get no PF, no ESI and no gratuity from these sections. Those benefits are governed by the employment chapters and calculated using a wage base, and a person without an employment relationship has no wages in that sense. Section 114(1) instead permits schemes, on subjects the sub-section lists: life and disability cover, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, crèche, and any other benefit the Central Government determines.

For a platform that engages workers as contractors, the Code and the Rules add reporting duties, and whether that contractor model holds is tested by the definitions. A person engaged through an app but working fixed hours, under direction, with the platform's equipment, may be an employee on the ordinary tests whatever the contract calls them. Wages, provident fund and termination dues follow from employee status.

A platform should keep the two populations in two ledgers, because a person in the wrong one produces the wrong filing in both directions. It should not use language describing employment in gig-worker documents, because a set of papers describing supervision, shifts and discipline describes an employment relationship whatever the heading says.

1. If the platform has not been registered, register it on the designated portal under Rule 49(5).
2. If the Rule 48(2)(b) details were not shared by 22 June 2026, share them; the duty remains due after the deadline, and the portal acknowledgement records the date of the late filing.
3. Configure submission of joiner details to the portal so new gig and platform workers are registered in real time or daily under Rule 48(2)(c).
4. Configure submission of exit details to the portal in real time or daily, also under Rule 48(2)(c).
5. Configure monthly sharing of engaged-worker details under Rule 48(2)(g), or at the periodicity the portal specifies.
6. Count days per worker per financial year, applying the Explanation to Rule 48(2), so the 90-day and 120-day positions are established in advance.
7. Build the contribution model, but do not pay a contribution. Assemble turnover excluding Central tax, levy and cess, and total payouts to gig and platform workers, so that Form XX can be completed when a rate and a date exist.

The section 114(4) rate and the section 114(5) start date have not been notified, and nothing can be done about either until the Central Government notifies it. A platform should check for both notifications at fixed intervals and keep the portal acknowledgements, the day counts per worker per financial year, and a dated note of each check.