CHENNAI: Weeks after Greater Chennai Corporation launched the first of its air-conditioned lounges in Anna Nagar for gig workers, intended mainly for use by those working with food delivery apps, Zomato has closed down its ‘resting point’ operating roughly just 250 metres away for the last one year. The closure has raised concerns over the choice of locations and the funding pattern involved in setting up these lounges by the GCC.
“When we asked our supervisors, they said now that the corporation’s AC lounge is operational, they decided to close the resting point because it was expensive to maintain them,” a delivery executive in the area told TNIE.
An employee in a supervisory role in Zomato for a region in Chennai, however, denied charges that its Anna Nagar resting point has been closed for good. He said the closure was to establish another point with a bigger space in a different location.
Zomato has been operating resting points at two locations in GCC limits - Anna Nagar and Velachery. Interestingly, GCC has now initiated plans to set up one in Velachery.
Last week, GCC floated tenders to set up two air-conditioned lounges in Velachery and KK Nagar with a capital expenditure of `50 lakh from its own kitty. GCC officials confirmed to TNIE that none of the food delivery apps are contributing to the initiative.
Activists have questioned the rationale behind spending public funds to construct and maintain these lounges, raising concerns that the move seemed to be resulting in aggregator giants shirking away from their responsibility of ensuring the welfare of workers they engage.
Labour activist Sujata Mody accused the state government for prioritising ‘eye-catching’ initiatives instead of genuine efforts to protect workers’ rights.
“Instead of focusing on implementing and enforcing labour laws for gig workers including fixed work hours, Provident Fund (PF) and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) coverage, and preventing exploitation, the government is investing in these lounges, which should actually be the responsibility of the companies,” she told TNIE.
She said the initiative was not only subsidising these companies, but also shifting the responsibility of workers’ welfare away from them
Meanwhile, workers expressed concerns over the sustainability of the initiative, considering the costs. “We are unsure how long this will be maintained properly. Will this continue if a new new government comes to power? There would be more certainty if our companies are providing these facilities,” said a 33-year-old delivery executive who often uses the GCC-built lounges.
Many workers TNIE spoke to said that if GCC builds more lounges, they should focus on areas like Nungambakkam, East Coast Road, Maduravoyal, Poonamallee and Madhavaram with high density of restaurants.
When contacted for a response, a GCC official said though the announcement for setting up these lounges came from the Labour department, the execution was handed over to GCC since they lacked engineering expertise.
“As of now, both the establishment and maintenance are being handled through the city corporation’s funds. After observing their usage for three months, we will take a decision regarding long-term funding and involving CSR funds.”
Few other GCC sources, requesting anonymity, said there were internal discussions on whether the civic body should be funding the lounges instead of making the companies do it, at least through their CSR funds.
One of them said, they were, however, asked to go ahead with the project since it was announced by the government during the budget.