Food and Quick Commerce Deliveries May Halt as Gig Workers Announce Year-End Strike

Clouds of uncertainty are hovering over the upcoming New Year's celebration as food and essential delivery personnel from major platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, and Zepto are set to strike on the 31st of December, which happens to be the eve of the New Year celebration. If you are planning to order food or essentials online as part of your New Year celebration, prepare to be disappointed, as the symbolic strike that happened on Christmas Day has led to the determination of the unions to fight to the end to see that their demands are met, resulting in the total shutdown of the delivery services on the busiest day of the year.

The chief reason behind the strike is the '10 minute delivery' model of fast-track business enterprises that the workers claim is 'deadly' and 'unsafe'. The Indian Federation Of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT) has placed a memorandum with 10 demands before the government. These include a monthly minimum income of ₹24,000 for delivery partners, a rate of ₹20 per kilometer for ride-hailing drivers, and a legal designation of "workers" instead of "partners," so they can fall under the purview of labor laws.

The unions have written to Union Labor Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, requesting immediate intervention. Workers allege that companies are compromising their safety for profit. Their demands include social security, such as health and accident insurance, limiting working hours to eight hours, and preventing arbitrary ID blocking without a valid reason. They also demand transparency in algorithms and a 20% cap on commission deductions.

This strike could prove to be a major turning point for India's gig economy. December 31st is the biggest business day of the year for food delivery and quick commerce companies, so the strike could result in losses worth crores. Given the impact seen in Gurugram and Delhi-NCR on December 25th, customers are being advised to avoid last-minute orders, as they may face significant delivery delays or cancellations.