The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023, passed in the Rajasthan Assembly on July 24, is a powerful example of how labour law draws its strength from workers’ struggles and victories of the past, even as “the workers of the world” respond to new relationships of employers, employees, and workers rights in the evolving future.
The term “gig” draws its etymological origin from jazz musicians doing short time-based performances called “gigs” for a predetermined fee. The capitalist economy applied this definition to current working arrangements, to escape from employer-employee relationships of any kind. The “gig economy” is in fact nothing more than the minute contractualisation of work, where the employer escapes from all responsibility except for determining the immediate task at hand, and arranging the pecuniary payment for it.
