Tricky labor reset — balancing business interests with worker welfare

Last Friday, when the Indian government announced labour reforms, consolidating 29 separate labour laws into four comprehensive codes, it attempted to address these incongruities — balancing business interests with employee welfare. “The e-commerce industries are going to get impacted heavily with much higher running costs given formal recognition of gig workers and platform workers,” said Gerald Manoharan, partner at legal firm JSA. Social benefits and contribution to welfare funds by aggregators are bound to affect the operating margin of such companies, before the costs are passed on to the customers, he added. Read more