A section of delivery agents of online food delivery aggregator Zomato in the capital have been on strike for the past two days and have accused the company of cutting their incentives, especially in view of high fuel prices that have made work impractical for them. Is.
A group of delivery agents met Labor Minister V. Shivankutty on Saturday evening and submitted a memorandum. The minister promised to take prompt action in consultation with the labor commissioner. According to delivery agents, who are often referred to as “partners” by aggregator companies, Zomato earlier this year unilaterally removed incentives including pickup charges and waiting charges. The company had also introduced mandatory logins for specific hours of the day, failing which agents would be fined. This happened when the company introduced a new gig system to which most of the agents have now moved. “Earlier they had a system by which we used to get around ₹450 per day as incentive. We used to get a minimum of ₹25 for delivery within 5 km and ₹5 for every km after that. There was also a ₹1 waiting fee for every minute of waiting after the specified delivery time. Now, there are no such incentives. Even if we wait for 1 hour now, we will not get the waiting fee. Also the pickup charge has been stopped. For example, if we have to ride 8 km to pick up an order at a restaurant and 2 km to drop an order, we will get paid for leaving only 2 km,” says Mohan (name changed), a delivery agent. Huh . Agents are also required to book slots 2 or 3 days in advance under the new system, without which they will not be able to work. A ‘medal’ system has been introduced by which a fine of ₹10 will be imposed for not logging in during peak hours. This has changed the entire nature of the job, which was initially about the freedom to log in and log off as and when chosen by the delivery agents. Zones for delivery have also been expanded, forcing drivers to travel long distances for little profit. “The company gets around 30% of the sales amount from restaurants as well as ₹25 to 45 service charges from customers. But drivers get only a little from this. They call us partners and brand ambassadors, but they charge us ₹250 for their t-shirts and ₹550 for bags. When we go on strike they get agents through outsourcing agencies. Team leaders also threaten to cancel our cards or file police cases against us if we raise such issues or protests. Petrol prices have gone up so much and are expected to increase soon. Now, we have enough to survive,” said Michael (name changed), another delivery partner.