social security

THE FUTURE OF LABOUR RIGHTS IN THE GIG ECONOMY: BEYOND CONTRACTUAL CLASSIFICATION K.Abitha, Pursuing LLM (BUSINESS LAW) at Government Law College, Coimbatore (India) Download Manuscript doi.org/10.70183/lijdlr.2026.v04.11 The Rapid rise of the Gig Economy has redefined the contours of labour relations, challenging traditional notions of employment, control, and protection under labour law. Gig Workers often engaged as “Independent Contractors,” occupy an ambiguous space between employee and entrepreneur, resulting in limited access to social security, minimum wages, and collective bargaining rights. This paper confronts the reality of algorithmic management, digital surveillance, and platform dependency, this article examines the inadequacy of the binary classification of “employee” and “independent contractor” is.  To detect changing paradigms of protection, it examines international legal and policy responses, such as the “third category” or “worker” status implemented in countries like the United Kingdom and new changes in India’s Code on Social Security, 2020.  To ensure that technological advancement does not come at the expense of human welfare, the paper advocates for a rights-based approach based on the concepts of dignity, equity, and decent employment, going beyond simple contractual classification. The study, which emphasizes the role of regulatory innovation, collective representation, and digital accountability in shaping sustainable labour standards for the twenty-first century, envisions a future framework for gig work that integrates flexibility with fairness through comparative legal analysis and policy evaluation.