Chennai: Delivery executives protest as Swiggy cuts their pay-per-order

Delivery executives working for Swiggy in Chennai have been on a strike as the company has slashed the pay-per-order from Rs 35 to Rs 10. They demanded that the company should roll back new wage policy.

Chennai:Swiggy's food delivery executives on Wednesday protested alleging drop in pay in new payment structure put in place by the company in Chennai. The agitated executives demanded that the company should roll back the new wage policy. They alleged that their income has dropped at a time when they have already been hit by the pandemic and now they are getting only ₹10 per delivery

"3 years ago, I was getting ₹40 for each delivery which has been reduced to ₹10 even though the petrol price has increased. Earlier, we used to earn around 800 per day. But now we are getting only ₹200. How do we feed our children? Ids of 1000 employees have been blocked," Pinto Ram, an executive told reporters.

The agitated staff alleged that the new policy provides them only Rs 10 per order compared to the earlier Rs 35.

The delivery executives also charged that their incentives have been reduced and their daily targets have been increased.

"We work hard day and night to achieve the desired targets but still we get just Rs 200. We deliver around 20-25 orders a day. Cities like Delhi, Mumbai are giving the bonus to their employees but we are denied of training incentive in Chennai."

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Describing the difficulties in achieving the targets, another Swiggy delivery partner said, "Earlier, we used to get some time to rest in between. But now, with so many targets to achieve we have to work 12 hours. The bonus for long-distance delivery, services during rains, monthly and weekly incentives have all been slashed."

Insisting that the company must roll out the new pay structure, another delivery executive said, "We are putting our lives in risk to ensure that people don't go hungry. We need to have minimum wages. We are coping with various block roads to provide services."

Hundreds of Swiggy employees protest in various parts of Chennai. The delivery executives said the petrol consumes most of their income as its prices have also been increased in recent times.

Now, they are demanding the old payment structure which gives them ₹35 to ₹40 for each delivery.

With ANI inputs