Swiggy workers stage stir in Hyderabad, seek hike
HYDERABAD: Several workers of online food delivery platform Swiggy staged a black badge protest over their pay structure on Monday, threatening to go on an indefinite strike from December 5, if their demands are not met.
Their demands include an increase in minimum base pay to Rs 35, increase in batch order pay to Rs 20, re-introduction of customer doorstep delivery charge of Rs 5, increase in distance pay from the existing Rs 6 per km to Rs 12 per km and also a monthly rating incentive.
Repeated requests by delivery workers to Swiggy to increase the per km charges did not yield any positive result. If their demands are not met by December 5, they plan to take up an indefinite strike and also boycott working for the platform.
The president of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, Shaik Salauddin said that a continuous rise in petrol and other essential commodities was impacting the earnings of delivery workers.
“In spite of working for 12-15 hours, we are unable to meet basic needs like house rents or children’s school fees which are rising every day,” he said.There are close to 10,000 delivery workers — both full-time and part-time — from all the major zones in Hyderabad.