India, Aug. 11 -- With over five lakh gig workers employed across more than 320 e-commerce, aggregator and service platforms in Maharashtra, the state government is moving to regulate the sector and extend social security and labour law benefits to these workers.

The labour department has prepared a draft bill that will require firms to contribute a cess - based on their tax and GST payments - to create a welfare corpus. This fund will finance schemes such as health cover, life insurance, fixed remuneration, and educational benefits for workers and their families. A similar model already operates for construction workers, where a 1% cess on project costs brings in over Rs.100 crore annually.

Gig workers - defined under section 2(35) of ...