‘If they cut pay by half, how do we live?’: Watch Swiggy delivery executives explain their protests
‘We want the amount that the company has cut from our pay [as part of the new payment structure] to be paid back to us.’
Food delivery executives at Swiggy have been holding protests in many cities, including Chennai and Hyderabad, over the rollback of incentives they were previously eligible for, for nearly a week, according to The News Minute.
The Chennai protests began on August 14 after the food delivery app reportedly withdrew 20 incentives that workers had previously been provided if they met performance criteria, The Wire reported. A Hyderabad delivery executive reportedly pleaded with Swiggy not to change rules at a time when work is scarce, especially since they are delivering food for Covid-19 patients as well.
As part of Swiggy’s new policy, delivery workers’ order fee has also been reduced to Rs 15 per order from Rs 35, according to the New Indian Express.
Responding on the issue, delivery portal Swiggy said in a statement, “Over the last couple of days, we have had a positive dialogue with our partners to explain the revised pay-outs and assuage their concerns. As a result, most of our partners are back to delivering with us and we’re serving 100% of the city of Chennai as of August 20. We are glad that our partners were able to understand the revised service fee which continues to be the best-in-the-industry. Once again, we would like to assert that most active partners have made over Rs 45 per order in the last week, with the high performing partners making over Rs 100 per order. Our partners earn incentives over and above this making their monthly service fee much higher. No active Swiggy delivery partner in the city makes only Rs 15 or lesser per order on an average. We understand the efforts put in by our delivery partners in making Swiggy accessible to consumers and maintain an honest approach in enabling a sustainable service fee.”