Food delivery app workers stage protest in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Delivery executives working with the food aggregator Swiggy are organising protests, demanding better work conditions and benefits. The delivery executives are attending to their duties by wearing black badges and have threatened to further intensify their stir after December 5 if their demands are not met. Shaik Salauddin, founder State president Telangana Gig and […]

Hyderabad: Delivery executives working with the food aggregator Swiggy are organising protests, demanding better work conditions and benefits. The delivery executives are attending to their duties by wearing black badges and have threatened to further intensify their stir after December 5 if their demands are not met.

Shaik Salauddin, founder State president Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union said that due to the rise in the prices of petrol and other essential commodities the delivery executives are in financial crisis.

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“The companies assure the customers of doorstep delivery, which means whatever they ordered will be delivered at their doorsteps. However, they are paying delivery workers only charges for the distance they travel and not for the extra work of delivering the food ordered to the customer’s doorstep. Depending on the distance, it takes anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes to reach the spot of delivery. Apart from that, the delivery persons also have to wade through the traffic in bad weather conditions. Despite doing all these, they are not getting fair treatment from the companies,” says Shiak Salauddin.

He said that despite repeated pleas, the managements did not bother to increase the charges. “Close to 10,000 delivery workers, both full time and part-time from all major zones are participating in the strike and will continue with it if the demands are not fulfilled in time,” he said.

He further explained that the workers are facing problems in managing their financial expenses as they have to take care of the families including school fees of children, house rents etc.

The union wants a minimum base pay of Rs 35, increase batch order pay to Rs 20, reintroduce customer doorstep delivery charges of Rs 5, increase distance pay from Rs 6 per kilometre to Rs 12 per km, monthly rating incentive should be reintroduced, super zones should be removed and stop assignment of order to third parties. Salauddin said that they will be meeting labour department officials and other government officials to bring to their notice their problems.

Our executives earning more than others: Swiggy

In a statement issued later in the evening, the company stated that the earnings of Swiggy’s delivery executives are the highest they have ever been.

“While the payout structure has remained unchanged, our active delivery executives in Hyderabad are now earning 30 per cent higher per hour than what they did a year ago,” Swiggy in a press release said.

Earlier this year, Swiggy introduced a fuel incentive that is indexed to the changing prices to factor in the increased fuel expenses. Despite the inflation in fuel price, due to the increased number of orders, a lucrative payout structure, and higher incentives, the earnings of delivery executives are at an all-time high,” it read.

It further stated that delivery executives in Hyderabad earn amongst the highest in the country. “Unfortunately, a few delivery executives have chosen to oversee these facts and misrepresent their earnings with Swiggy. We are making conscious efforts in helping them understand how their earnings have in fact only grown,” the company stated.

The company is proud to enable a reliable and consistent earning opportunity for thousands of our executives in Hyderabad in addition to benefits like medical insurance, including extended Covid cover, accident cover, emergency and loss of income support, legal and financial support, it added.

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