Karnataka Gig Workers Act: 14-Day Deactivation Notice

If a delivery or ride-hailing app switches your ID off without warning, Karnataka law now treats that as a legal event, not a private business decision. The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Act, 2025 says an aggregator cannot deactivate you without written reasons and fourteen days notice.

Section 14 has two limbs, and both matter.

1. The contract must list the grounds. Section 14(1) requires the agreement between you and the aggregator to contain an exhaustive list of grounds for termination or deactivation. If the app removes you for a reason that is not on that list, it is acting outside its own contract.
2. Reasons, notice and a hearing. Section 14(2) says an aggregator shall not terminate or deactivate a gig worker without giving valid reasons in writing and with prior notice of fourteen days, following the principles of natural justice.

The proviso is narrow. Where the ground for suspension includes cases of bodily harm, the platform may act immediately without the fourteen day notice. Rule 11 of the 2025 Rules adds a short list of other immediate-termination grounds: offences under Chapters V and VI of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, material and financial fraud, and any other offence the Board specifies. Even in those cases the worker keeps the right to appeal.

So “the algorithm flagged you” is not, by itself, a lawful reason. A low rating, a customer complaint you were never shown, or an ID blocked pending an unexplained review are exactly the situations sections 13 and 14 were written for.

The Rules set a tight clock, so act on the day you find out.

1. Within 7 working days: file your grievance with the aggregator's Internal Dispute Resolution Committee under Rule 11(1), attaching your documents. Do not let this deadline pass while you wait for a call centre to respond.
2. Within 15 working days: the Committee must make an endeavour to resolve it, under Rule 11(2).
3. Still unresolved: take it to the Grievance Redressal Officer under Rule 23. A registered gig worker may apply in person, through the web portal or by any other mode, on anything touching entitlements, social security payments and benefits under the Act. The officer works to the timeframe fixed under the Karnataka Sakala Services Act, 2011.
4. On appeal: Rule 24 gives the appellate authority 90 days to dispose of the appeal following due process. Orders go to the Board within 7 days, and the Board must implement them within 60 days.

Keep the app's own written reason, your ID number, your earnings screenshots and the dates. Under section 15 the reason for a deduction is supposed to be on the invoice, so your invoices are evidence.

This is where careful reading matters, because a lot of what circulates online is wrong.

What the Act settles. Section 20(1) charges the aggregator a Platform Based Gig Workers Welfare Fee of not less than one percent and not more than five percent of the payout to the gig worker in each transaction. Section 20(2) lets the State Government set different percentages for different categories of aggregator listed in the Schedule. Section 20(5) provides that the fee collected counts towards the contribution payable under section 114(4) of the Code on Social Security, 2020.

What the Act leaves to a notification. The exact percentage is “as may be notified by the State Government”. Section 20(1) required that notification within six months of the Act coming into force. Anyone quoting you a single firm figure should be able to show you that gazette notification. Check before you rely on a number.

How it is collected. Under Rule 17(2) the aggregator self-declares and pays the fee within five working days from the end of each quarter, in a standardised format. Tips, ex-gratia and event-based payments, referral fees and incentives are excluded as “settled payments”. Rule 18 requires quarterly electronic remittance into the Board's account, and lets an aggregator claim a refund of any excess within 90 days, which a designated officer must decide within 30 days by reasoned order.

Note what this means for you: the fee is levied on the aggregator, not deducted from your earnings. If a platform tells you it is taking the welfare fee out of your payout, ask it to point to the provision that allows that.

Be realistic about the gap between a statute and a working benefit. The Act creates the Board and the fund and fixes the machinery. The schemes themselves, and the benefits you can actually claim, are notified separately: section 3(2) leaves it to the Board to notify general or sector specific social security benefits, and section 7(b) ties your access to schemes to contributions and to a minimum number of transactions in a quarter, again as notified.

The enforceable parts today are the ones that do not wait for a scheme: the written contract, the notice before deactivation, the transparency duty, the deduction-on-the-invoice rule, and the grievance ladder.

Because so much depends on notifications, this is a good RTI subject. File with the Labour Department, Government of Karnataka, and with the Board once it is functioning, and ask for specific documents rather than opinions:

• A copy of the notification under section 20(1) fixing the welfare fee percentage, with its date and gazette reference.
• The total welfare fee collected so far, aggregator-wise and quarter-wise.
• The number of gig workers registered under section 10 and Unique IDs issued.
• The name and office address of the Grievance Redressal Officer and the appellate authority under section 22.
• Any scheme notified by the Board under section 3(2), with the eligibility conditions.

Our AI RTI Drafter turns those questions into a clean application, and the RTI Act guide explains the 30 day clock and what to do with silence. For the full method, see The RTI Playbook.

Section 1(3) applies the Act to every aggregator or platform operating or providing a listed service within the State of Karnataka. What matters is where the service is provided, not where the company is registered.

Not automatically, but the platform has to justify it. Unless the ground falls in the narrow carve-out for bodily harm, or the Rule 11 list covering Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Chapter V and VI offences and material or financial fraud, section 14(2) required written reasons and fourteen days notice. Ask in writing which ground applies and where it appears in your contract.

No. Section 20(1) charges it to the aggregator or platform, calculated on the payout to you. Rule 17 makes the aggregator self-declare and pay it quarterly.

Section 7(a) gives you registration with the Board and a Unique ID that is applicable across all platforms. That is the point of it. Your record follows you rather than resetting each time you join a different app.

No. Rule 23 lets a registered gig worker apply in person, through the web portal or by any other mode. Start with the Internal Dispute Resolution Committee within 7 working days, and keep copies of everything.

Section 15 requires the aggregator to inform you of the reasons for any payment deduction within the invoice raised for the work you performed. It also requires payout to be made as per the contract, whether the cycle is daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly. An unexplained deduction is a breach you can put to the Internal Dispute Resolution Committee.

It works alongside it. Section 20(5) expressly counts the welfare fee towards the contribution payable under section 114(4) of the Code on Social Security, 2020, so the State fee and the central obligation are reconciled rather than duplicated.

• The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Act, 2025, Karnataka Act No. 72 of 2025, full text on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Rules, 2025, Notification No. LD 413 LET 2023 dated 19 November 2025, full text on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The Code on Social Security, 2020, section 114, on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The Karnataka Sakala Services Act, 2011, Karnataka Act No. 01 of 2012

• Gig and platform worker social security rights in India
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• Delivery partner deactivated and payout withheld
• Unpaid salary or wages: your options

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutory text quoted from India Code. Where the Act leaves a figure to a State Government notification, verify the current notification before relying on it.