Even as gig and platform workers form the backbone of several companies that control their incentives, pay and working hours, companies do not have to comply with labour standards for workers’ occupational health, safety or working conditions under India’s labour codes. This makes gig workers more susceptible to extreme climate events, our reporting found.

The Code on Social Security defines and includes gig workers, but its implementation is unclear, and the lack of mention of gig workers in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (OSH, 2020), puts them at risk of climate impacts on health, productivity and earnings.

This is the fourth part of our series on how India’s new labour codes have a climate blindspot, which particularly impacts women workers. You can read the first three parts here, here and here.

Ganga (name changed), a 43-year-old gig worker based in Faridabad, is a “partner” with Urban Company. She was first drawn to gig work about a decade ago due to its flexibility of working hours and a decent income. But now, the nature of work has changed. Ganga said Urban Company guarantees a monthly income of Rs 45,000 if they are available for 80 hours on weekdays between 11am and 6pm and on weekends. “I am available for work 6-12 hours a day, including weekends…I typically earn between Rs 30,000-40,000 a month.”

The main problem, Ganga said, are gig cancellations. “We are allowed to cancel four bookings in 28 days. If we cross this limit, we will be sent for re-training or access to the app will be paused for a few days,” she said. Previously she had the option of choosing to accept a booking. “Now, we are automatically assigned one, limiting our flexibility.”

Ganga works in a 7 km radius around her home, and uses a scooter for commuting. She recalled an incident in May this year when the roads were inundated due to heavy rains. “I raised a ticket for cancellation of a booking. The Help Centre told me they had not received a weather update and that I have to be on time at the client’s residence or cancel the booking myself. Fortunately, the customer cancelled the booking.” “Urban Company calls us ‘partners’, but we do not feel like one.”

If there is low flexibility to choose and cancel jobs, experts told us, and reports show, many workers continue to commute to client homes in conditions of extreme heat, impacting health and productivity. Women are particularly prone to the ill-effects of heatwaves, as we reported in the first part of this series.

We have reached out to Urban Company to understand their policy on working hours for partners, incentives for work, and policy regarding extreme weather events. We will update the story when we receive a response.

Because this kind of work is recent, the new labour codes for the first time in India recognised gig and platform workers as a separate category. The code on social security defines a gig worker as a person who performs work or participates in and earns from a work arrangement outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship. Platform work is defined as a work arrangement outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship, in which organisations, or individuals, use an online platform to access other organisations, or individuals, to provide specific services in exchange of payment.

“Questions have also been raised regarding the legal status of gig workers, who, despite being recognised under the Code, continue to remain outside the traditional employer-employee relationship, potentially limiting the extent of protection available to them,” wrote Rishikesh Kumar, an associate at Common Cause, a governance reform and accountability think tank, on their website, in April-June 2026.

"As a result, they are generally not covered by labour standards on working hours, rest breaks, overtime, or workplace welfare provisions, such as access to washrooms and drinking water, that apply to employees under labour laws,” Nitesh Kumar Das, organising secretary of the Gig Workers Association told ISignal.

Anjana Karumathil, associate professor of practice, organisational behaviour and human resources, at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, agreed. “So long as these codes remain centred in traditional employment models and gig work exists in very fragmented and informal arrangements, all the benefits will remain sporadic, and protection remains very weak.”

The gig economy includes diverse work, from ride hailing and transport to food delivery, beauty services and domestic work. Gig work is growing; from 7.7 million workers in 2020-21 to 12 million in 2024-25. It is expected to employ 23.5 million workers by 2029-30. Women constitute 28% of the workers, according to Taskmo, a tech-driven on-demand task fulfillment platform that helps businesses, corporates, personal brands, and start-ups employ gig workers.

“Women in the platform economy can face distinct risks, particularly in forms of work that require them to enter private homes,” explained Prachi Sharma, research manager at Future Shift Labs, a global think-tank. Therefore, she added, occupational safety, working conditions, and risks of violence and harassment are different than in a usual workplace.

ISignal reached out to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as to state labour departments in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka for comment on protecting gig workers. We will update this report when we receive a response.

Climate impacts exacerbate problems caused by long working hours

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions or OSH code, 2020 (OSH code, 2020) mandates that no worker should work for more than eight hours in a day and more than six days in a week.

But “the labour codes do not set a legal limit on how many hours gig and platform workers can stay logged into an app. There is no statutory overtime pay if they work 12–14 hours a day, and there is no legal requirement for mandatory rest breaks or a weekly holiday,” said Das of the Gig Workers Association.

A September 2026 report from Janpahal, a Delhi-based not-for-profit organisation, surveyed 1,000 platform workers across 10 cities in India, and found that 57% of the respondents reported working more than 49 hours a week, and 23% worked for more........

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