Food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy have offered a hike in the incentives given to their “delivery partners” to ensure minimal disruptions in services on New Year’s Eve, following a call for a strike by the gig workers’ union, PTI reported on Wednesday.
Such incentives are standard practice during festive periods, the platforms said.
Several unions, including the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers and the Gig and Platform Service Workers Union, had called on workers employed by quick e-commerce platforms in the country to log off from these applications on Wednesday to demand reforms in the gig economy.
The workers are demanding the regulation of platform companies under labour laws, a ban on unsafe “10-minute” delivery models, an end to arbitrary ID blocking and penalties, fair and transparent wages, social security and a protection of the right to organise and engage in collective bargaining.
The protest on Wednesday disrupted the operations of firms such as Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto in several cities ahead of New Year celebrations, The Hindu reported.
Amid the call for strike, Zomato offered delivery workers payouts between Rs 120 and Rs 150 per order during peak hours from 6 pm to 12 am on New Year’s Eve, PTI reported. The platform also promised earnings of up to Rs 3,000 during the day, subject to order volumes and availability of delivery worker, the news agency reported.
Additionally, Zomato temporarily waived penalties on order denials and cancellations, PTI quoted unidentified sources as saying.
However, a spokesperson for Eternal Limited, the technology company that owns Zomato and Blinkit, told PTI that such incentives were part of its “standard annual operating protocol during festive periods, which typically see higher earning opportunities due to increased demand”.
Swiggy also announced similar incentives during the year-end period, which included offering delivery workers earnings of up to Rs 10,000 across December 31 and January 1, the news agency reported.
The platform also advertised peak-hour earnings of up to Rs 2,000 for the six-hour period between 6 pm and 12 am on New Year’s Eve, PTI quoted unidentified sources as saying.
This was done in a bid to ensure adequate rider availability during one of the busiest ordering windows of the year, they said, adding that increased payouts were standard practice during such periods.
As of Tuesday night, “over 1.7 lakh delivery and app-based workers across India [had] confirmed participation” in the protest, PTI quoted the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union and the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers as saying in a joint statement.
The unions had earlier called a strike on December 25 as well.
In a statement, the unions had said that the December 25 action – which saw thousands of delivery workers log off platforms – had sent a “clear warning to platform companies about falling earnings, unsafe delivery pressure, and loss of dignity at work”, PTI reported.
“However, companies responded with silence…no rollback of reduced payouts, no dialogue with workers, and no concrete assurances on safety or working hours,” they said. “This continued indifference has made today’s [Wednesday] strike unavoidable.”
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