run to the bottom for gig workers

The recent announcement by Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal of his plan to deliver food to customers in 10 minutes created a small Twitter storm, prompting the CEO to clarify. This raises many questions on the nature of the delivery platform and its impact on delivery staffs.

The platform industry is all about grabbing market share. This is done by introducing innovations to increase “efficiency”, which refers to cost reduction and speed in the case of food delivery; Both directly affect the platform worker, or “delivery partner”, as they are euphemistically called. It is workers’ earnings that represent the only variable cost element; Cost reduction ultimately takes a toll on his earnings. This forces him to “run twice as fast to stay in one place”. Alice in Wonderland,

“We do not put any pressure on the delivery partner to deliver the food fast,” Mr. Goyal claimed in his clarification. Well, in the world of platform where the customer is the king (or queen), it is the delivery partner who will face the wrath of the customer for the late delivery. Platform employees have had enough experiences of anger getting ugly, even with refusal to pay customers to leave partner at the mercy of the platform, which is often insensitive to workers’ complaints.

Tamil Nadu MP Karti Chidambaram was perhaps the most reacting person on Twitter. In a follow-up letter, he asked, among other questions, the average earnings and average daily hours worked of gig workers employed in food delivery. The recently completed Center for Labor Studies at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) addresses these questions Study on working of food delivery platform in Bengaluru city,

major problems

First, on Platform Worker’s Earnings – the numbers generally given by the platform are the potential gross income that a worker can earn. In a system where all costs including fuel, asset costs including maintenance and depreciation, all taxes and levies are borne by the worker, the actual earnings are much lower. At a time when fuel prices are skyrocketing, some attention has been paid to the impact of fuel on incomes in the sector. However, other cost elements are generally not discussed in popular reports. Between Zomato and Swiggy, the two big fathers of the food delivery sector, they claim to create jobs for around five lakh “delivery partners”. They claim that these “partners” can earn a decent daily wage with the freedom to log on and off at will. However, our study estimated that delivery pay-outs and incentives accounted for only 40% of the worker’s total earnings, with 30% being consumed by fuel costs and the other 30% from various capital costs and levies. This meant that the worker could make the platform worthwhile with some money in his pocket after meeting all fixed cost obligations, if he stayed on the platform for a really long time. There was no question of freedom to log on and off at will.

This leads to the second question of intensity of work. Our study showed that in one window of a week, the worker covered an average of 13 hours per day, covering a distance of more than 190 kilometers each day. In his replies, Mr. Goyal explained the 8-principles around which Zomato was building its instant delivery platform – the seventh principle was delivery partner safety. Well, in a journey of 13 hours and 190 kms on a two-wheeler through busy city traffic, it is certainly impossible to ensure the safety of the delivery partner.

human values

Shri Goyal categorically stated that innovation is the only way for the food industry to survive and thrive. His company has certainly flourished, with the current market prices having a market capitalization of close to ₹1 Lakh Crore! The question is, has their “delivery partner” been a partner in this prosperity? The contribution of the platform to technology and lifestyle improvement cannot be denied, especially during the pandemic. However, it also has human involvement, providing the final link to make the platform an efficient delivery machine. Certainly this link is equally important to the ultimate success of the industry. Maybe Tamil Nadu MPs can also get some answers to their questions through the findings of this study.

Mohan Mani is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Labor Studies at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU).

Sachin Tiwari is an independent researcher and associated with Platform Studies at the Center for Labor Studies. (NLSIU)