Food and grocery delivery services provided by Swiggy were disrupted across Tamil Nadu on Monday, May 22, as delivery partners called for an indefinite strike. The striking delivery partners registered with Tamil Nadu Food and Other Goods Delivery Employees Union (Tamil Nadu Unavu Mattrum Idhara Porutkal Viniyogikum Oozhiyargal Sangam) have raised 30 demands, including better treatment from the Swiggy management and their fleet managers.
S Ramakrishna, founder and general secretary of the union, told TNM, “This is not a sudden movement. We have tried to hold talks with the Swiggy management several times, but they have never responded. We have addressed our grievances with the Labour Commissionerate, they understand our problems. We need responsible fleet managers who will care for their delivery partners. They do not address our issues with Swiggy nor convey their messages to us. Earlier, Swiggy used to give us a lot of benefits, we need them back.”
@Swiggy @SwiggyCares worst response from swiggy. There is no fleet manager for zone.I contact swiggy office in Chennai last Monday. They told me please come Friday.And no amount is added flat pay offer for last Monday. Swiggy only consider their customers. Not delivery partner. pic.twitter.com/ExcdMjCFA9
— Raja (@NSRaja_EMPEROR) May 10, 2023
Another demand put forth by them is to make customer care conversations available in Tamil to the delivery partners, instead of in Hindi. “They ask us, ‘You are in India and don’t know Hindi? You should learn it.’ Is it our national language? A lot of us do not know Hindi. We get rebuked by the customer care executives for our inability to understand Hindi,” he added.
Other demands include issuance of new delivery uniforms every three months and delivery bags every 11 months, appointing qualified fleet managers, better treatment of delivery partners by partnering establishments, and displaying customers’ delivery rating on the delivery partners' phone."
However, the latter demand has been reported to pose a privacy risk for the consumer. When asked about this concern, he replied, “A delivery executive must have 4.29 out of five stars on an average every week to receive weekly incentives. They do not get the incentive for their hard labour even if it is 4.28. Therefore, it is important to know. But we understand the privacy implications. Then they (Swiggy) should suspend the star rating system.” The union also expressed hope to get recognised as employees under law as there is no legal protection available for them currently. They said that they will continue with the strike until demands are met.