Introduction
Every morning, thousands of Sri Lankans log into an app, wait for a ping and start driving or delivering, never sure what the next job will pay, whether a slow day will hurt their rating, or what happens if they get hurt on the road. Digital platforms like PickMe and Uber have given people flexible ways to earn a living. But they have also exposed a gap at the heart of Sri Lankan labour law; nobody has ever decided, legally, what a gig worker actually is.
What is the Gig Economy?
Gig work means short-term, task-based jobs arranged through apps rather than long-term employment contracts.It typically involves three players, the platform that owns the app and sets the rules, the worker who performs the task and the customer who pays for it. Platforms tend to present themselves as neutral technology intermediaries, even while they fix prices, assign work algorithmically and can switch a worker off the app at will.
In Sri Lanka, this sector has expanded rapidly since the mid-2010s, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 economic crisis, which pushed many people into platform work simply to survive. PickMe alone reports more than 100,000 registered drivers and Uber has operated locally since 2015. Add food-delivery riders and online freelancers to the count and Sri Lanka’s true gig workforce is considerably larger, operating inside a labour market where roughly two-thirds of all employment is already informal.
Employee or Contractor? Neither Label Quite Fits
Sri Lankan labour law recognises only two categories of worker; the “workman,” who is protected by a wide range of statutes and the independent contractor, who is protected by almost nothing. There is no middle ground. Courts decide which category a worker falls into using three tests.
The Control Test asks whether the employer dictates not just what work is done, but how it is performed.6 The Integration Test asks whether the worker is a core part of the business or merely providing a service to it in one Sri Lankan case, a commission-based tailor who used his own tools and never signed an attendance register was still held to be a “workman” because his cutting work was essential to the business. The Economic Reality Test looks past the contract’s label to ask who actually bears the financial risk, in another case, workers labelled “independent agents” who could set their own hours were nonetheless found to be employees because they were economically dependent on the company.8 Courts have also confirmed that a contract of service can be implied from the real working relationship, even without any written contract at all.
Gig work sits awkwardly across all three tests. Drivers choose when to log on, which looks like independence. But platforms set fares, assign jobs by algorithm, monitor performance through ratings and can deactivate an account without warning, all signs of significant control. The UK Supreme Court’s decision in Uber BV v Aslam recognised exactly this tension by creating an intermediate “worker” status, entitled to some but not all employment rights. No Sri Lankan court has yet been asked to make the same call and until one is, platforms are free to classify their entire workforce as freelancers.
The Law’s Blind Spot
Walk through Sri Lanka’s labour statutes one by one and the gaps are stark. The Shop and Office Employees Act only covers people working in a registered shop or office; gig workers who work from their vehicles and phones fall outside it entirely. The Wages Boards Ordinance allows a minimum wage to be fixed for a recognised trade, but no Wages Board has ever been established for platform-based transport, so there is no statutory floor on earnings. The Employees’ Provident Fund Act and the Employees’ Trust Fund Act require contributions only where a recognised employer-employee relationship exists and because platforms are not legally “employers,” they owe nothing toward a driver’s retirement savings.
Access to a Labour Tribunal under the Industrial Disputes Act is reserved for a “workman,” so gig workers cannot use it. The Termination of Employment of Workmen Act, which requires consent or Labour Commissioner approval before a dismissal, only binds employers with fifteen or more workmen and staff who have served over a year, meaning a platform switching off someone’s account is treated as an ordinary commercial decision, not a termination of employment at all. And the Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance, which covers workplace injuries, does not apply either, leaving injured riders dependent on whatever insurance a platform chooses to offer that day.
What This Looks Like in Practice
The human cost of this legal gap is concrete. Some drivers report earning as little as LKR 1,000 a day after fuel and maintenance costs and a recent survey found that 93% of app-based workers put in 11 to 16 hour days simply to earn a living wage. There is no statutory annual leave, sick leave, or maternity leave and no compensation when an account is deactivated. No hearing, no advance notice, no right of appeal. As one Uber driver put it bluntly: “We are not employees of Uber; according to the company, we are just consumers of their service.” Female riders report additional safety concerns, which independent research has identified as a major barrier keeping women out of ride-hailing work altogether.
Platforms have introduced some voluntary protections in response. PickMe Pramuka offers accident and life insurance, though the payout is tied to a driver’s performance rating. Uber, partnering with Allianz, offers free accident cover to delivery workers, but only while a delivery is actively underway. Uber Eats has piloted “Refresh Points” in Colombo, offering riders rest facilities, showers and menstrual hygiene provisions. Both platforms also run in-app SOS features and emergency contact lines.23 These measures genuinely help, but they remain voluntary, inconsistent and can be withdrawn at any time, no substitute for enforceable statutory rights.
Comparative Analysis and recommendations for Sri Lanka
Other jurisdictions have already moved past the rigid employee/contractor binary. The UK Supreme Court’s Uber BV v Aslam ruling created an intermediate “worker” category entitled to the minimum wage, paid leave, and rest breaks, based on the real working relationship rather than the platform’s contractual label.24 A separate UK case found that Deliveroo riders were genuinely self-employed, showing that the outcome still depends closely on the facts of each platform. India’s Code on Social Security 2020 formally defines gig and platform workers and requires platforms to fund a Social Security Fund covering accident insurance, healthcare and maternity benefits.26 Australia’s 2024 “Closing Loopholes” reform created an “employee-like worker” category, letting the Fair Work Commission issue binding minimum-standards orders and hear disputes over unfair deactivation. None of these systems take the platform’s own label at face value, all of them look instead at real control and economic dependence. The International Labour Organisation has been moving in the same direction, discussing a first-ever global labour standard for platform work at its 114th Session in June 2026.28
What Sri Lanka Should Do Next
Sri Lanka does not necessarily need to force gig workers into the traditional “workman” box, but it cannot keep leaving them with nothing either. A workable path forward would borrow from these comparative models, an intermediate legal category carrying baseline protections such as minimum earnings, rest periods and protection from unfair deactivation; a platform-funded social security contribution administered through the existing EPF/ETF system; and Labour Tribunal jurisdiction extended to hear disputes over deactivation, non-payment, and workplace safety.
There is already a foundation to build on. The 2025 National Social Protection Strategy proposes partnering with PickMe and Uber to extend social protection to gig workers,29 and a draft Employment Act offers a chance to bake these protections into Sri Lanka’s modernised labour framework. The risk of waiting is that reform only ever seems to arrive after a crisis. As one driver summed it up, “I think the government should intervene in this sector and establish regulations. Otherwise, companies like Uber and PickMe will always benefit while we get nothing.” With Sri Lanka’s gig workforce only set to keep growing, the time to close this gap is now, before, rather than after, the next major dispute forces the issue.
Read the extended paper here ➜ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ho-kGRvBsh_QixYDOLl6PyFL4WEy438C/view?usp=sharing
Written By: –
Gagana Bhashitha Bowaththa
Faculty of Law,
University of Colombo
Designed By: –
Rtr. Pesandi Senawatta
(Senior Blog Team Member 2026-27)
