Swiggy delivery partners had gone on strike in Chennai over low per delivery pay
Food delivery platform Swiggy told NDTV on Friday that it had resumed service to "100 per cent of the city of Chennai (as of Thursday)", following a strike by delivery partners over what they claimed was a drop in wages as a result of a revised payment structure enforced by the company.
"Over the last couple of days we have had a positive dialogue with our partners to explain revised pay-outs and assuage their concerns. As a result, most of our partners are back to delivering with us and we're serving 100 per cent of the city of Chennai as of Thursday," Swiggy said in its statement.
Describing its revised service fee (and wage structure) as "the best in the industry" and the delivery partners as the "backbone of our organisation", Swiggy said active partners made over Rs 45 per order in the past week. "High-performing partners make over Rs 100 per order," the company said.
"NO active Swiggy delivery partner in the city makes only Rs 15 or lesser per order on an average," Swiggy declared, referring to allegations by its partners this week that they were underpaid. The company said the Rs 15 per order was "one of only seven components of the service fee".
Starting last week food delivery partners working for Swiggy went on a strike in the Tamil Nadu capital to protest what they said was poor pay.
"3 years ago, I was getting Rs 40 for each delivery which has been reduced to Rs 10 even though the petrol price has increased. Earlier, we used to earn around 800 per day. But now we are getting only Rs 200. How do we feed our children?" Pinto Ram, one of the partners on strike, told news agency ANI.
In its statement Swiggy defended its revised service fee and payment structure, pointing out that at the height of the Covid lockdown, when entire cities had been shut down, the company "financially aided delivery partners".
"In an industry-first we supported close to 40,000 partners to the tune of Rs 18 crores in earnings guarantee to tide through the lockdown," the company said.
Swiggy, like several other companies, has been affected adversely by the pandemic and the lockdown. Last month the company laid off 350 more employees in addition to the over 1,000 people let go in May.
Late last month the company said it had "only recovered 50 per cent of its peak" business strength pre-lockdown.
With input from ANI