Section of Swiggy delivery partners go on strike in Chennai

CHENNAI: A section of delivery executives of Swiggy on Monday resorted to strike on allowances and incentives and hiking per kilometre charge from Rs 5 to Rs 10.

"Since the starting of Swiggy services in the city, the delivery executives were being paid Rs 5 per kilometre. The cost of petrol at that time was about Rs 60 per litre. Now it is Rs 102 per litre. Considering the increase in the cost of all the essential items, it would be appropriate to hike the charges to Rs 15 per km but we are seeking only Rs 10 per km. This is a fair demand that the management refuses to negotiate with us, " said CITU-affiliated Tamil Nadu Food and Other Items Delivery Executives Union general secretary Ramakrishna.

With food delivery executives resorting to strike, restaurants were not available for order on Monday morning in certain parts of the city, including OMR and Adyar.

However, services remained normal in the latter part of the day.

Swiggy workers abstained from work to register their protest against the new payout methods and demanded the revival of daily/weekly incentive schemes.

Delivery executives said under the new method, they would be forced to work for longer hours (more than 12 hours) but even then they would not be able to achieve their incentive target.

Ramakrishna said that earlier, senior delivery executives would get a monthly incentive of Rs 5000, Rs 1000 for achieving targets on weekends, monthly phone recharge of Rs 300 and vehicle oil change allowances of Rs 250. "All these benefits were rolled back one by one. Now the food delivery executives were being exploited with long hours of work for their livelihood without any protection," he said.

The protesting workers put forward a 30-point charter of demands including a minimum delivery charge of Rs 30 as against the existing Rs 20 and payment of Rs 20 for batch orders instead of Rs 10.

They also sought action against the fleet managers who are harassing the delivery executives.