Hyderabad: Delivery executives working for Swiggy—one of the largest online food ordering and delivery platforms, went on indefinite strike in multiple places of the city on Tuesday. The delivery boys boycotted work urging the food company to fulfill their demands.
The food delivery executives of Swiggy in Ameerpet, Secunderabad, Ameerpet and Banjara Hills are protesting against continuing wages issues and against the squeeze on their earnings. An indefinite strike was launched by the Indian Federation of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT) against the reduction in payment scale more than 3000 delivery workers actively participated in the strike on Tuesday. The workers would boycott their work until the management fulfills the promises.
The protesting delivery executives allege that while the delivery costs charged to the customers have increased, delivery persons complain that their basic pay per delivery has been decreased to less than half reduced from Rs. 35 per order to Rs. 15. Incentives and other charges paid to riders, which vary from city to city have also been sharply reduced.
Today about 3,000 delivery executives of Swiggy across the city have staged a demonstration in front of the restaurants. They have taken bike rallies, stopped picking-up orders at more than 100 high order volume restaurants in different parts of the city as part of the strike. Delivery executives have not logged in and have not picked-up any orders. As a result major restaurants in the city were unserviceable for delivery. Even third party delivery companies like rapido and shadowfax were stopped from picking up orders.
“We did not fight back when they brought it down to Rs 35. But now, it has further dropped to Rs 15. How can we feed our family with this?” “Swiggy is robbing money from both the customer and the delivery boy,” a delivery executive told siasat.com.
“Swiggy is not entertaining any demands raised by delivery executives but rather is releasing false statements and indulging in damage control and PR exercise, Swiggy model is based on paying low earning to delivery executives, charging high delivery charges from customer and above that per order commission from the restaurants,” stated Shaik Salauddin National General Secretary of Indian Federation of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT).
Shaik Salauddin further said that “we will counter Swiggy’s false statements by sharing a screenshot of earnings of delivery executives on social media in coming days. Delivery executives across Hyderabad are forced to sacrifice their earnings to protest against exploiting the work condition of Swiggy. They will intensify and continue to strike until the demands are not met,” he added.