BENGALURU: Hundreds of delivery executives of online food ordering app Zomato took part in a rally, protesting against the company for cutting down their incentives and other benefits.
While over 800 delivery executives took out a bike rally on Saturday, over 300 others held a protest march in Electronics City, on Sunday. The executives alleged that the company has been cutting down on their commission, incentives and other benefits that were offered to them earlier.
“When I joined in November last year, I was paid a minimum of Rs 40 per delivery, within a 4-km range. New entrants today are getting a paltry sum of Rs 15 to Rs 18 for the same,” said a delivery boy.
Earnings of Rs 600 per day would qualify for an incentive of Rs 200 earlier. However, with a large number of executives on the job, it is difficult for any delivery executive to meet the target.
“Taking advantage of the increased number of delivery partners in the business, the company is cutting down on the number of delivery orders assigned per person deliberately, so we lose out on incentives,” said Anantha, a delivery partner.
Activists stated that the term ‘freelancers’ or ‘delivery partners’ is used for these executives to avoid employee benefits. “This is a ploy to deprive them of the status of an employee, which otherwise would have become mandatory for the company to extend ESI, PF and other benefits. The series of protests in other metro cities suggests the urgent need for unionisation” said Vinay Sarathy, an activist at All India Democratic Youth Organisation, the forum which is trying to unite delivery partners into a group.