Workers union writes to NHRC on e-commerce platforms practising forced labour

The Gig and Platform Service Workers Union on Monday wrote to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for platforms practising “forced labour” through “target based” and “time bound work”.

The union wrote the letter days after it participated in a pan-India strike against ten-minute deliveries on December 25 and 31.

In the letter, it stated that labour practices prevalent in the platform economy constitute forced labour in violation of Article 23 of the Constitution, under International Labour Organisation’s Conventions and Sustainable Development Goals. “The Supreme Court has settled the legal position that forced labour is not confined to overt physical or legal compulsion in People’s Union for Democratic Rights,” it read.

“In the gig economy, such economic coercion is exercised through algorithmic management systems that impose rigid time targets, opaque performance metrics and constant threats of penalties, loss of income,” it read. The letter further highlighted that for workers dependent on platform income for subsistence, refusal to comply is not a genuine option. “The apparent “choice” to work is thus illusory,” it read.

The union then submitted that the “platform-based gig work represents a new technologically mediated form of forced labour”. “Here control is exercised not through visible supervisors but through algorithms. ratings, and punitive incentive structures,” it stated.

It requested the body take cognisance of the conditions of the workers.