Why Gig Workers Can’t Choose Working Hours Even In Extreme Weather

Even as gig and platform workers form the backbone of several companies that control their incentives, pay and working hours, companies do not have to comply with labour standards for workers’ occupational health, safety or working conditions under India’s labour codes. This makes gig workers more susceptible to extreme climate events, our reporting found.The Code on Social Security defines and includes gig workers, but its implementation is unclear, and the lack of mention of gig workers in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (OSH, 2020), puts them at risk of climate impacts on health, productivity and earnings.This is the fourth part of our series on how India’s new labour codes have a climate blindspot, which particularly impacts woman workers. You can read the first three parts here, here and here.Ganga (name changed), a 43-year-old gig worker based in Faridabad, is a “partner” with Urban Company. She was first drawn to gig work about a decade ago due to its flexibility of working hours and a decent income. But now, the nature of work has changed. Ganga said Urban Company guarantees a monthly income of Rs 45,000 if they are available for 80 hours on weekdays between 11am and 6pm and on weekends. “I am available for work 6-12 hours a day, including weekends…I typically earn between Rs 30,000-40,000 a month.”The main problem, Ganga said, are gig cancellations. “We are allowed to cancel four bookings in 28 days. If we cross this limit, we will be sent for re-training or access to the app will be paused for a few days,” she said. Previously she had the option of choosing to accept a booking. “Now, we are automatically assigned one, limiting our flexibility.”Ganga works in a 7 km radius around her home, and uses a scooter for commuting. She recalled an incident in May this year when the roads were inundated due to heavy rains. “I raised a ticket for cancellation of a booking. The Help Centre told me they had not received a weather update and that I have to be on time at the client’s residence or cancel the booking myself. Fortunately, the customer cancelled the booking.” “Urban Company calls us ‘partners’, but we do not feel like one.”If there is low flexibility to choose and cancel jobs, experts told us, and reports show, many workers continue to commute to client homes in conditions of extreme heat, impacting health and productivity. Women are particularly prone to the ill-effects of heatwaves, as we reported in the first part of this series.We have reached out to Urban Company to understand their policy on working hours for partners, incentives for work, and policy regarding extreme weather events. We will update the story when we receive a response.Because this kind of work is recent, the new labour codes for the first time in India recognised gig and platform workers as a separate category. The code on social security defines a gig worker as a person who performs work or participates in and earns from a work arrangement outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship. Platform work is defined as a work arrangement outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship, in which organisations, or individuals, use an online platform to access other organisations, or individuals, to provide specific services in exchange of payment.“Questions have also been raised regarding the legal status of gig workers, who, despite being recognised under the Code, continue to remain outside the traditional employer-employee relationship, potentially limiting the extent of protection available to them,” wrote Rishikesh Kumar, an associate at Common Cause, a governance reform and accountability think tank, on their website, in April-June 2026."As a result, they are generally not covered by labour standards on working hours, rest breaks, overtime, or workplace welfare provisions, such as access to washrooms and drinking water, that apply to employees under labour laws,” Nitesh Kumar Das, organising secretary of the Gig Workers Association told ISignal.Anjana Karumathil, associate professor of practice, organisational behaviour and human resources, at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, agreed. “So long as these codes remain centred in traditional employment models and gig work exists in very fragmented and informal arrangements, all the benefits will remain sporadic, and protection remains very weak.”The gig economy includes diverse work, from ride hailing and transport to food delivery, beauty services and domestic work. Gig work is growing; from 7.7 million workers in 2020-21 to 12 million in 2024-25. It is expected to employ 23.5 million workers by 2029-30. Women constitute 28% of the workers, according to Taskmo, a tech-driven on-demand task fulfillment platform that helps businesses, corporates, personal brands, and start-ups employ gig workers.“Women in the platform economy can face distinct risks, particularly in forms of work that require them to enter private homes,” explained Prachi Sharma, research manager at Future Shift Labs, a global think-tank. Therefore, she added, occupational safety, working conditions, and risks of violence and harassment are different than in a usual workplace.ISignal reached out to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as to state labour departments in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka for comment on protecting gig workers. We will update this report when we receive a response.Climate impacts exacerbate problems caused by long working hoursThe Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions or OSH code, 2020 (OSH code, 2020) mandates that no worker should work for more than eight hours in a day and more than six days in a week.But “the labour codes do not set a legal limit on how many hours gig and platform workers can stay logged into an app. There is no statutory overtime pay if they work 12–14 hours a day, and there is no legal requirement for mandatory rest breaks or a weekly holiday,” said Das of the Gig Workers Association.A September 2026 report from Janpahal, a Delhi-based not-for-profit organisation, surveyed 1,000 platform workers across 10 cities in India, and found that 57% of the respondents reported working more than 49 hours a week, and 23% worked for more than 70 hours a week, above the 48-hour weekly limit set by the labour codes. Unlike salaried employees, platform workers’ earnings are tightly linked to their continuous availability and rapid task completion.Also, algorithmic penalties, rating systems, and fear of deactivation discourages workers from logging off during heatwaves, heavy rain or flooding, experts say and reports show. A 2026 report on gig workers by HeatWatch, an organisation working on climate adaptation, found that 71% of the women surveyed worked all seven days of the week during summer, and 65% had only one break or none during the working day. With time-bound delivery mandates and incentive-linked earnings, the apps (which mediate platform work) can penalise workers for slowing down, even in extreme heat, the report found.Other platforms like Snabbit and Pronto, quick-service apps offering on-demand home services, allow people to work full-time or part-time, where workers can choose to work for 4 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours or 12 hours depending on their availability.These apps have categories for workers based on their quality of work (arriving on time, no negative reviews), number of hours they work, how many jobs they cancel and how many leaves they take. A worker in the top category can earn between Rs 35,000 and Rs 45,000, while those in the lowest category could make as less as Rs 14,000, despite working eight hours a day, said Poonia from Ajeevika Bureau, based on their survey of domestic workers at Urban Company’s InstaHelp, Snabbit and Pronto.For other work categories, companies could have different requirements. “Urban Company requires us to work at least for 6 hours a day. The maximum number of hours we can choose to work is 13 hours daily,” Ganga, who works as a beautician with the company, said. Ganga said she chooses to also work on weekends, and as she has been doing it for sometime, she does not find it tiring. The company asks partners to be available for at least 14 hours on weekends over the period of a month.Platform-based apps, however, typically incentivise working extra hours, explained Dharmendra Kumar, secretary of Janpahal. For instance, it could promise additional income if they accept another booking, he said. “This compels them to work even when heat exposure could be disastrous for their health.”Ganga says Urban Company offers no incentives like this. “If our customer ratings are 4.9 and above, we qualify to be a part of Luxe services (a more premium service), which offer higher earnings. “Once we get low ratings, it takes a long time to bounce back. My friend working in Gurgaon, who is part of Luxe, earns more than Rs 80,000 a month.”Ganga said she gets 24 days of unpaid leaves in a year, which are not penalised. She is allowed to take one unpaid emergency leave a month, without penalty.We have reached out to Urban Company, Pronto and Snabbit on protections for gig workers, and their incentive systems and will update the story when we receive a response.The long work hours take a toll. The Janpahal survey found that 64.5% reported experiencing fatigue and sleep disruption. Nearly half reported musculoskeletal pain, including back and neck pain, likely linked to prolonged riding, sitting, or carrying loads.The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events pile on, with 75.5% reporting facing moderate to severe impact of heat on their productivity and safety, the Janpahal survey found. Half of the respondents experienced dehydration, 62% had heat exhaustion and 49% dealt with severe overheating.The 2026 report by HeatWatch on women gig workers found that even though nearly 36% reported feeling faint or fainting, 57% reported dehydration and 47% reported nausea or vomiting, only 18% sought treatment from a doctor, clinic, or hospital while 69% reduced or stopped work because of heat-related illness. Among women who continued working while unwell, 70% cited at least one form of platform-control pressure, while (56%) cited at least one form of financial pressure, the report found.The rules for OSH code, 2020 direct employers of a factory to provide suitable atmosphere, enough air circulation and protect workers from excessive heat, cold and extreme weather. But these provisions are absent for gig workers. “Unfortunately, our labour codes do not see private homes as work sites,” said Kumar of Janpahal. Denying basic facilities, such as washrooms, is an unfair labour practice, he said.For gig and platform workers, the city is the workplace. “The question is whether our cities are ready. Do we have enough clean, hygienic washrooms, drinking water or rest centres?” asked Das.A 2024 survey of 166 gig and platform workers in Hyderabad highlighted that 40% of the workers reported having no access to clean and cold drinking water while working. More than 60% lacked access to clean washrooms, while more than 80% said they could not find room for resting, shade or access to cooling facilities like fans.Some platforms, like Pronto, say on their website that they have ‘hubs’ where workers can rest and use washrooms. The survey by Ajeevika Bureau confirmed these rest centres, but found that the centres were useful for workers only if they were within a 1 km range of the rest stop, as the 15-minute break between two bookings was not long enough to reach a rest centre further than that, Poonia said.Ganga, the Urban Company worker, said some of her clients let her use washrooms and provide her with drinking water. “Sometimes, I use washrooms in petrol pumps but they are often unhygienic,” she said.“Women workers often wait on the streets as they await booking. Clients do not allow them to wait at homes, apartments or in residential societies,” said Kumar of Janpahal. He further adds that when women workers visit clients' homes, clients sometimes refuse access to air conditioners and washrooms. Unpaid care responsibilities, unsafe waiting spaces, and unsuitable mandatory uniforms add to the physical and psychological burden, according to the 2026 report by HeatWatch.Shaik Salauddin, founder president, Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, and the founder and National General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers, stressed that platform companies should take on the responsibility for sharing data on where toilets, water centres, rest centres and first-aid kits are available.“Platform companies are earning from the hard work of gig and platform workers. They should give a heat bonus for people working from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Every 3-5 km, platform companies should provide rest rooms with clean drinking water supply and toilets for workers,” he suggested.In 2025, recognising that gig workers operate largely outdoors and are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued an advisory. It asked all platforms and aggregators to suspend mandatory work for platform and gig workers between 11 am and 4 pm when the India Meteorological Department declares orange (severe heat alert for the day) and red alerts (extreme heat alert for the day) in their respective cities or regions. The NDMA advisory also called for shorter shift options, with sufficient cooling breaks, heat-protection kits for workers, and asked that companies provide workers the option to opt out of shifts, without penalties. It also suggests at least two emergency leave days during summer, and a minimum of three for women, without any penalties.“This is an advisory. There is no mechanism for compensating workers for loss of income during peak heat hours,” Kumar of Janpahal explained. Without such protections, he adds, workers have no option but to work for survival.The 2026 HeatWatch report found that 71% of the workers reported a decline in income during the summer and 89% reported borrowing, delaying payments, or cutting household expenditure to cope with summer-related financial pressure. Further, 74% received no heatwave-related support from their platform.Five states have introduced legislation for gig workers. Four states -- Karnataka (2025), Telangana (2026), Jharkhand (2024) and Bihar (2025) mandate the aggregator to provide and maintain, as far as reasonably possible, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of the worker. Rajasthan (2023) does not have this provision. “This is broadly framed [for states that have a provision]. The state laws do not specify maximum hours, rest breaks or overtime compensation or heat stress,” Das said.Karnataka also calls for providing adequate periods of rest during the work day and work week, access to sanitary and rest facilities, including reasonable travel time t