Zomato and Swiggy gig workers will also avail these facilities along with pension

For social security, gig workers shall receive ESIC health facilities as well as a pension. For this health service, too, gig workers will not need to contribute from their wages, but part of the contribution provided by aggregator companies towards pension will go to the ESI fund.

In order to avoid any risk to finances from the Gig Workers Pension Fund, the Ministry of Labour has decided to transfer all responsibility for operating it to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Some amount from the pension fund will be invested in the ESIC fund

After confirming that the plan to grant part of the pension fund amount to the ESIC fund for offering health services to gig workers is complete, top-level sources in the Ministry of Labor indicated that its financial burden will not fall on workers.

A small part of the amount that the aggregator companies will pay for pension fund contribution on every billing transaction for the pension fund will go to the Employees' Health Insurance Corporation i.e., ESIC. Aggregator companies have agreed with the Ministry of Labor to give two percent of each billing transaction as a pension contribution for the pension of gig workers.

This was done to strengthen the shield of social security, along with being low-paid, because this will provide complete medical facilities for any kind of disease of gig workers, and there will be no financial burden on them.

In case of job loss, gig workers will naturally get some facilities like a salary for three months, insurance protection under ESI by coming under its purview. While female gig workers will get the benefit of maternity benefit and leave.

The source also said that after deliberating on several options regarding handing over the responsibility of the pension fund of gig workers, the Ministry of Labor has decided in the final proposal that EPFO ​​​​will operate it.

Options of handing over the responsibility of operating the gig workers' pension fund to LIC and nationalized banks were considered, but they were left out in view of the market risks with LIC and the sovereign guarantee of deposits up to five lakhs in the bank. EPF is the most suitable for pension fund operation because the sovereign guarantee of the entire amount deposited in it is of the government.