Challenges and Legal Protection of Food Delivery Gig Workers in Chennai: A Socio-Economic, Empirical and Statutory Analysis

Abstract This article examines the socio-economic vulnerabilities and legal protection available to food-delivery gig workers in Chennai. Combining doctrinal analysis of India’s labour framework with primary survey data from 100 workers engaged on platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, Faasos and Domino’s, the study focuses on three dimensions of precarity—income instability, lack of social security, and health concerns—and tests whether selected working conditions are associated with job satisfaction. Income instability emerges as the dominant challenge: 59 respondents identified it as significant, compared with 27 reporting health concerns and 14 identifying lack of social security as high-impact. A chi-square test confirms a statistically significant association among the challenge categories and their reported intensity, χ²(2, N = 100) = 14.12, p < .01. A second test, however, does not establish a significant association between the recorded working-condition categories and job satisfaction, χ²(1, N = 100) = 3.41, p > .05. The non-significant result should not be read as evidence that working conditions are unimportant; rather, it suggests that the binary measures used may not capture the cumulative effects of earnings volatility, algorithmic management, fuel costs and limited alternatives. The paper argues that India’s emerging recognition of gig and platform workers requires stronger implementation, portable benefits, minimum-earnings safeguards, transparent platform governance and meaningful worker representation.