Food delivery company Zomato faces another controversy as its delivery personnel in Kolkata have threatened to go on strike from Monday, saying that the food they have to deliver hurts their religious sentiments, India Today reported on Sunday. The employees have refused to deliver beef or pork during Bakri Eid on Monday.
“Recently some Muslim restaurants have been added to the online food delivery app,” Mousin Akhtar, a delivery employee, told India Today. “But we have some Hindu delivery boys who are denying to deliver beef. And it’s been heard that in few days we have to deliver pork, which we refuse to deliver.”
Akhtar added that apart from being asked to deliver food not permitted by their religion, the staff also experience payout problems and lack medical facilities. “The company knows everything, but in spite of helping us they are using false allegations against us,” he claimed.
Zomato had last month courted controversy after it refused to address a customer’s complaint. The customer had complained that he was assigned a Muslim delivery boy in the holy month of Shravan. “We are proud of the idea of India – and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners,” Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal said. “We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values.”
However, the food delivery firm received flak later for using the “halal” tag on its products. Halal food adheres to Islamic law, and halal meat is prepared by slaughtering the animal quickly with a sharp knife, as mentioned in the Hadith. The Hadith is the record of words and actions ascribed to Mohammad.
Corrections and clarifications: The description of halal meat has been edited in this article.
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