Gig Economy

A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace and companies tend toward hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees.

A gig economy undermines the traditional economy of full-time workers who rarely change positions and instead focus on a lifetime career.
The gig economy can benefit workers, businesses, and consumers by making work more adaptable to the needs of the moment and demand for flexible lifestyles.
At the same time, the gig economy can have downsides due to the erosion of traditional economic relationships between workers, businesses, and clients.

Benefits

Competition and efficiency among workers improved.
Increase in operational efficiencies and reduction in project cost saved training time in organizations.
There is a wide range of choices for the employment seeker as well as the job provider as proximity to the workplace does not matter here. People also change jobs several times.
No fixed working hours hence women have more flexible working hours.
Retired people can also stay active after retirement as this will keep them engaged.
The travel costs and energy to travel to the workplace is reduced since work at home is possible.
Employers hire people for specific projects and pay them. This is more economical for them.

Factors promoting Gig Economy

In this digital age, the workforce is highly mobile and work can be done from anywhere.
Short term contract will be safe for the firms, as it avoids long term obligations.
Software and technological changes taking away human efforts contributed to the gig economy.
The uncertain business climate also tempted companies to go for short-term labours.

Challenges faced in Gig economy

There are no labour welfare emoluments like pension, gratuity etc for the workers.
Gig workers may face unfair termination. They may also attain minimum wages and less paid leave.
Workers do not have the bargaining power to negotiate a fair deal with their employers.
Banks and other financial service providers resist extending lines of credit when steady income is not assured in situations where teamwork is essential and gig worker teams will likely produce tardy, inconsistent and poor output.
Unionization of workers will be difficult.
Confidentiality of documents etc of the workplace is not guaranteed
The gig economy is not accessible for people in many rural areas where internet connectivity and electricity is unavailable.
The social welfare objectives can be neglected if business and profitable avenues of freelancing are prioritized.

Gig Economy in India

Companies hire gig workers on a project-to-project basis.
In India, freelancing as an employment option has not yet reached the rural landscape.
The gig economy in India is being fuelled by start-ups.
India can learn from developed countries like the US and basic training and courses on freelancing, etc.
India can engage with the European Union and the United States and the discussion on the protection of the gig economy is already underway.
In India, the Union government hired freelancers to digitization of documents as part of the Digital India initiative.

Conclusion

Gig workers control their employment with respect to the type of job they want to undertake and the time they wish to put in towards such a job. An estimated 56% of new employment in India is being generated by the gig economy companies across both the blue-collar and white-collar workforce. The labour legislation in India has been enacted to ensure that the employees and certain eligible workers, including contract workers, are entitled to all the benefits they require to sustain themselves. Hence in India, minimum wages, paid leave provisions and maternity benefits should also be available to workers. Companies should also introduce peer-to-peer mentoring and establish sharing platforms, both offline and online, to enable workers to connect among themselves

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