Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday criticised the Centre for abstaining from voting at the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention on “decent work in the Platform Economy”, which was aimed at setting minimum standards for gig workers.In a post on X, he called the development a “national disgrace”.”The Indian government’s decision to abstain on the @ilo’s Convention on decent work in the Platform Economy, which establishes minimum conditions for gig workers and which Indian employers and workers both voted to support, is a national disgrace,” he said.”Instead of abstaining, the government should have endorsed the standards the whole world has agreed upon to protect gig workers, and adopted them in domestic legislation,” the post read.Tharoor called it yet another example of the establishment’s tone-deafness to the needs of young Indians, “in this case the lakhs who earn a bare living through an app”.At its 114th session in Geneva, on June 12, the International Labour Organization adopted the convention concerning decent work in the platform economy, the first of its kind to protect gig workers.It establishes binding minimum-wage, occupational safety, and social-security standards for digital platform workers and was adopted by a recorded vote of 406 delegates in favour, eight against.A total of 36 ILO members, including India, abstained from the vote.India is one of the largest gig economies in the world. The Labour Codes have formally recognised gig and platform workers, expanding social security, welfare funds, and benefit portability.Meanwhile, over 31.78 crore unorganised workers have registered on the e-Shram portal as of July 14 this year.