Karnataka government tables Assembly bills for gig workers

Bengaluru, Aug 12 (PTI) The Karnataka government on Tuesday tabled 15 bills, including one to provide social security and welfare to the gig workers.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Karnataka Amendment) bill was also tabled.

The government said the Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2025 is aimed to protect the rights of platform based gig workers.

It also intends to place obligations on aggregator or platform in relation to social security, occupational health and safety, transparency in automated monitoring and decision-making system, to provide dispute resolution mechanisms, to establish a welfare board and create a welfare fund for platform based gig workers.

The 16-member board will have Labour Minister as its ex-officio chairperson, additional chief secretary or the principal secretary of labour department as the ex-officio member.

It will have four representative body of gig workers, an equal number of representative body of aggregator, two representatives from the civil society with experience in the field and a technical expert.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Amendment Bill makes "attempt and preparation to make engagement of a child punishable by rigorous imprisonment, which may extend to two years or with fine, which may extend to Rs one lakh or with both".

The Karnataka Compulsory Service by Candidates Completed Medical Courses (Amendment) Bill enables posting of MBBS graduates even in urban areas which remain surplus even after posting to rural areas, posting of post graduates to community health centres and other hospitals in rural areas and issuing conditional, No Objection certificate to pursue higher studies like PG and super specialty courses upon submitting an undertaking to fulfill the obligation of one year compulsory service.

Bills that were passed include Civil Services (Regulation of Transfer of Medical Officers and Other Staff) (Amendment) Bill, Tank Conservation and Development Authority (Amendment) Bill that sets the buffer zone regulations and prevents the misuse of lakes, Fire Force (Amendment) Bill, Medical Registration Bill, and Universities (Amendment) Bill.

Other bills pertain to setting up development authority or board for Banavasi, Sarvajna Kshetra, Kitturu, Kudala Sangama, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Area, Kaginele and Basavakalyana. PTI GMS GMS SA