The Punjab Labour Code 2026

Section 237: Right to freedom of association. 

The platform workers shall have the right to form and join organizations or unions of their own choice, the right to collective bargaining, and all other rights as provided under Chapter 2.6 of the Code.

Section 238(2): Every digital labour platform shall pay employees' compensation through group insurance or otherwise as provided under Part V of the Code.

Section 234(1)(a): (...) "active hours" mean the hours that a platform worker is logged in to the platform application and includes the working and waiting hours; (...)

 

Section 235(2): The contract shall specify the payment, method of calculation and periodicity of such payments, rest requirements, provisions on occupational safety and health, terms and conditions relating to termination, including deactivation or penalties.

Section 241(2)(a): [A digital labour platform shall inform its workers about] automated monitoring systems, which are used to monitor, supervise or evaluate the work performance of platform workers through electronic means.

Section 241(3): Digital labour platforms shall provide the information referred to in sub-section (2) in the form of a document that may be in electronic format and the information shall be presented in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.

Section 242: Data portability. 

The digital labour platform shall allow, at the request of a platform worker, portability of transaction and reputation data, as may be prescribed by the rules.

Section 243: Maintenance of record. 

Every digital labour platform shall keep such records and shall submit returns to the Directorate General of Labour Welfare, at such times, in such form and containing such particulars relating to persons employed by the digital labour platform, as may be prescribed by the rules, including but not limited to information on the number of persons performing platform work through digital labour platforms, their contractual or employment status, copies of employment agreements, average duration of and average income from activity and the general terms and conditions applicable to those contractual relationships.

Section 241: Transparency regarding automated monitoring and decision-making systems. 

1. The algorithms engaged by the digital labour platforms to determine access to work or remuneration, or the type of work shall be transparent, as set out in this section, and workers shall have the opportunity to seek explanation and redress.

2. A digital labour platform shall inform its workers about: (a) automated monitoring systems, which are used to monitor, supervise or evaluate the work performance of platform workers through electronic means; and (b) automated decision-making systems which are used to take or support decisions that significantly affect those platform workers' working conditions, in particular their recruitment, access to and organization of work assignments, their earnings, their occupational safety and health, their working time, their promotion and their contractual status, including the restriction, suspension or termination of their accounts and explanation of any disciplinary actions.

3. Digital labour platforms shall provide the information referred to in sub-section (2) in the form of a document that may be in electronic format and the information shall be presented in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.

4. Digital labour platforms shall make the information referred to in sub-section (2) available to the worker on the first working day and at any time upon the platform worker's request and the platform shall make the information available to the worker prior to the introduction of the changes affecting working conditions, the organisation of work or monitoring of work performance. The information shall be presented in a concise, transparent, intelligible, and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.

5. Digital labour platforms shall make the information in sub-section (2) available to the platform workers' representatives, inspectors, Dispute Resolution Committee and Labour Court upon their request.

6. A digital labour platform shall not use automated monitoring and decision-making systems in any manner that puts undue pressure on persons performing platform work or otherwise puts at risk the physical and mental health of platform workers, contrary to Chapter 2.5, including but not limited to the improper use of incentives such as bonuses related to work duration and punitive practices.

7. Digital labour platforms shall ensure that automated monitoring and decision-making systems avoid any potential discriminatory decisions issued on the basis of prevalent biases or discriminatory practices.

8. Digital labour platforms shall ensure ultimate human oversight of all decisions affecting working conditions, including termination.

Section 241: Transparency regarding automated monitoring and decision-making systems. 

1. The algorithms engaged by the digital labour platforms to determine access to work or remuneration, or the type of work shall be transparent, as set out in this section, and workers shall have the opportunity to seek explanation and redress.

2. A digital labour platform shall inform its workers about: (a) automated monitoring systems, which are used to monitor, supervise or evaluate the work performance of platform workers through electronic means; and (b) automated decision-making systems which are used to take or support decisions that significantly affect those platform workers' working conditions, in particular their recruitment, access to and organization of work assignments, their earnings, their occupational safety and health, their working time, their promotion and their contractual status, including the restriction, suspension or termination of their accounts and explanation of any disciplinary actions.

3. Digital labour platforms shall provide the information referred to in sub-section (2) in the form of a document that may be in electronic format and the information shall be presented in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.

4. Digital labour platforms shall make the information referred to in sub-section (2) available to the worker on the first working day and at any time upon the platform worker's request and the platform shall make the information available to the worker prior to the introduction of the changes affecting working conditions, the organisation of work or monitoring of work performance. The information shall be presented in a concise, transparent, intelligible, and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.

5. Digital labour platforms shall make the information in sub-section (2) available to the platform workers' representatives, inspectors, Dispute Resolution Committee and Labour Court upon their request.

6. A digital labour platform shall not use automated monitoring and decision-making systems in any manner that puts undue pressure on persons performing platform work or otherwise puts at risk the physical and mental health of platform workers, contrary to Chapter 2.5, including but not limited to the improper use of incentives such as bonuses related to work duration and punitive practices.

7. Digital labour platforms shall ensure that automated monitoring and decision-making systems avoid any potential discriminatory decisions issued on the basis of prevalent biases or discriminatory practices.

8. Digital labour platforms shall ensure ultimate human oversight of all decisions affecting working conditions, including termination.

Section 239: Digital labour platforms' responsibilities regarding occupational safety and health. 

1. The provisions applicable to employers in Chapter 2.5 apply to digital labour platforms.

2. Every digital labour platform shall, in accordance with its obligations in Chapter 2.6: 

(a) take, so far as is reasonably practicable, measures to ensure the safety and health of platform workers; 

(b) develop action plans for worker safety during severe weather conditions including heat and cold waves; 

(c) ensure systematic and effective identification of the existing and new hazards at the workplace on a regular basis; 

(d) inform the platform workers in an understandable manner and in an accessible written form, before any work commences, of the hazards associated with their work, the risks involved, and the preventative and protective measures that need to be taken; 

(e) provide such information, instructions and training, as are necessary to ensure the occupational safety and health of workers; 

(f) provide adequate personal protective equipment as may be approved by the Department to the platform workers, without any cost to them, if hazards cannot otherwise be eliminated or controlled, in order to prevent every risk of harm and of adverse effects on health; and 

(g) maintain in the general register particulars of all accidents, near misses including dangerous occurrences, commuting accidents and suspected cases of occupational diseases at the workplace and submit the extracts thereof to the Chief Inspector.

3. Occupational safety and health measures shall not involve any expenditure by the platform workers.

4. The digital labour platforms shall establish rest stops and toilet facilities for platform workers, as prescribed by the rules framed under the Code.

Section 240: Duties of platform workers.

Every platform worker shall ensure, in accordance with Chapter 2.5: (a) reasonable care for his own safety and that of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at the workplace; (b) proper use of any personal protective equipment provided by the platform; and (c) his escape from places of imminent and serious danger and report forthwith to the digital labour platform of such a situation: Provided that a platform worker who has removed himself from a work situation which he has reasonable justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to his life or health shall not be penalized.

Section 241(7): Digital labour platforms shall ensure that automated monitoring and decision-making systems avoid any potential discriminatory decisions issued on the basis of prevalent biases or discriminatory practices.

Section 235(2): The contract shall specify the payment, method of calculation and periodicity of such payments, rest requirements, provisions on occupational safety and health, terms and conditions relating to termination, including deactivation or penalties.

Section 235(4): The digital labour platform shall notify workers of the proposed changes to the contract in a reasonable time frame of at least two calendar weeks. Contract changes that reverse existing accrued benefits and reasonable expectations on which workers have relied shall be null and void.

Section 235(5): The contract shall not include clauses which exclude liability for negligence or unreasonably exempt the platform from any liability, nor clauses that prevent workers from effectively seeking redress for grievances arising from the working relationship.

Section 241(2)(b): [A digital labour platform shall inform its workers about] automated decision-making systems which are used to take or support decisions that significantly affect those platform workers' working conditions, in particular their recruitment, access to and organization of work assignments, their earnings, their occupational safety and health, their working time, their promotion and their contractual status, including the restriction, suspension or termination of their accounts and explanation of any disciplinary actions.

Section 241(8): Digital labour platforms shall ensure ultimate human oversight of all decisions affecting working conditions, including termination.

Section 237: Right to freedom of association. 

The platform workers shall have the right to form and join organizations or unions of their own choice, the right to collective bargaining, and all other rights as provided under Chapter 2.6 of the Code.

Section 4(2): A person is a worker under sub-section (1) irrespective of the contractual basis of the engagement and includes: (h) a person engaged through a digital labour platform; or (...)

Section 215(4): Except in the case of an intern, a worker belonging to one or more of the categories in this Part shall be deemed to be engaged under an employment agreement unless the person engaging the worker proves otherwise in accordance with section 132.

Section 132: Determining whether an employment relationship exists. 

1. For the purposes of the Code, the determination of the existence of an employment relationship, and the characterisation of a contract as an employment agreement, shall be guided primarily by the facts relating to the performance of work and the remuneration of the worker, notwithstanding how the relationship is characterized in any contrary arrangement, contractual or otherwise, that may have been agreed between the parties.

2. For the purposes of the Code, a worker engaged by a person: (a) shall be considered an employee rather than as a contractor or self-employed; and (b) the person shall be considered an employer: unless the person demonstrates that all of the following conditions are satisfied that: (i) the worker is free from the control and direction of the employer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work; (ii) the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the employer's business; and (iii) the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.

Section 251(2): Workers and employers covered by Chapters 4.3, 4.6, 4.7 and 4.8 shall raise their grievances as provided in Chapter 6.5 of the Code.

Section 335(12): The provisions of this section shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to a rights dispute between a digital labour platform and a platform worker irrespective of the worker is an employee of the platform or engaged under a contract for services, or on some other basis.