The State Council of Ministers has given its nod to the Telangana Gig and Platform Employees (Registration, Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2025, which paves the way for formulating an effective data-driven policy.
The state cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday, discussed in detail the salient features of the draft policy covering more than three million gig and platform workers in the state. These workers, according to NITI Aayog, are involved in transport, delivery, domestic services and logistics, among others, and work seven days a week without job security or insurance.
With a lack of transparency in the payment of commissions and the absence of a statutory mechanism for registering complaints, the government has devised comprehensive legislation to effectively supervise and ensure the safety of these new generation workers. Although the central government enacted the Social Security Code by 2020, the implementation of the provisions was not uniform across the country, requiring strong legislation at the state level.
Accordingly, the Chief Minister convened a meeting with Gigu and platform workers on December 23 last year, following which a bill was prepared. The law envisages a special identity for gig and platform workers that recognize them, thereby making them eligible to avail state government schemes. Their activities will be managed by the exclusive Council of Social Security and Welfare, an umbrella organization headed by the Minister of Labor as chairman and representing all interested parties.
Once adopted, the new legislation will ensure the registration of workers, provide them with social security and a favorable working environment, and ensure transparency in the payments that will be made to them. The law allows self-registration of workers and sets a 60-day deadline for platforms to share a database of workers. It provides a dedicated social security fund along with taxes to be paid by the aggregators based on a percentage set by the government. The fund would have contributions from the government and allocations from companies for corporate social responsibility as well as donations. The corpus would be utilized for the welfare of concert and platform workers for accidental death assistance, spousal benefits, health benefits and more.
The government would appoint a dedicated grievance redressal officer and a platform-level internal grievance committee in addition to the appellate authority headed by an officer of the rank of deputy commissioner. It envisages a new Digital Welfare Fee Verification System and also envisages the imposition of penalties for violators.
The state government was considering the new legislation after a detailed study of the laws in force in various states like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand. The government is confident that the approved law, which would be adopted at the next meeting of the legislature, was comprehensive and the most mature compared to others. The bill would ensure that Telangana is a role model for the country in ensuring the safety of workers as well as resolving any disputes.
Published – 17 Nov 2025 20:53 IST
