SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Ministry of Labour and Employment
On December 17, 2025, the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced a landmark development in India’s labor landscape: the establishment of the National Joint Forum for Platform Workers. This unified mechanism, formed during an ILO-ACTRAV workshop in Hyderabad, brings together Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and emerging youth-led platform-worker organizations to create a single, powerful voice for advocacy in the rapidly expanding gig economy.
Key Outcomes of the National Joint Forum:
Unified Advocacy: For the first time, independent platform-worker unions and traditional trade unions will operate under one umbrella to coordinate proposals on legal recognition and social protection.
Decent Work Agenda: The forum focuses on addressing the unique challenges of the platform economy, including algorithmic management, arbitrary pay deductions, and the lack of traditional employee-employer relationships.
Macroeconomic Literacy: A core focus is on strengthening the analytical capacity of youth leaders to engage in evidence-based policy advocacy regarding national budgets, taxation, and social protection financing.
Preparing for ILC 2026: The forum is a critical step in strengthening India’s contribution to the 2026 International Labour Conference (ILC), where new global standards for decent work in the platform economy are set to be finalized.
What is the significance of “evidence-based policy advocacy” for gig workers? It involves using macroeconomic data and analytical tools to demonstrate how specific policies—such as welfare cesses on aggregators—affect worker wages and livelihood outcomes, ensuring that workers’ perspectives are grounded in economic reality when negotiating with the government.
Policy Relevance
The formation of the National Joint Forum aligns with a broader national and state-level shift toward formalizing gig work in India.
National Labour Codes Implementation: The notification of the Code on Social Security, 2020, in November 2025, marks the first time gig and platform workers are explicitly recognized in central legislation, providing them statutory entitlements like EPF and accident insurance.
State-Level Innovations: States like Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Telangana have pioneered legislative frameworks that mandate algorithmic transparency and the collection of a welfare cess (1–2%) from aggregators to fund social security schemes.
Collective Bargaining Rights: The forum addresses a critical policy gap where the misclassification of platform workers as “independent contractors” has historically been used to deny them the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How will the National Joint Forum ensure that its advocacy leads to the uniform implementation of social security benefits across all states, given that some—like Rajasthan—have yet to frame the necessary rules even two years after passing the primary Act?
Follow the full news here: Towards a collective voice for platform workers