Swiggy delivery partners in Chennai go on strike, demand better pay and working conditions

Deliveries via the Swiggy food and groceries delivery app remained slow on Tuesday in Chennai, as a section of its delivery partners continued with their indefinite protest that began on Monday, demanding increased pay and better work conditions.

Deliveries via the Swiggy food and groceries delivery app remained slow on Tuesday in Chennai, as a section of its delivery partners continued with their indefinite protest that began on Monday, demanding increased pay and better work conditions.

Delivery partners said they were being paid only ₹5 per km, which was hardly enough to cover even petrol costs.  “Those attached to the Instamart vertical that delivers groceries are being paid even lower amounts. We have no place to air our grievances. We are fed up with our work,” said a delivery partner, who works with the delivery app on a part-time basis. “I cannot survive just on this income, which is why I also work with another agency,” he added.  

S. Ramakrishna, founder of the Tamil Nadu Food and Allied Products Delivery Workers Union, affiliated to the CITU, who led the protest at Valasarawalkam on Monday, said that delivery partners were treated badly by fleet managers. “If we rub them the wrong way, we don’t get enough deliveries. The company has cut all the incentives that we used to get monthly, weekly and during the weekends,” he said.  

The Union has made a set of 31 demands, including increasing the per km rate for delivery to ₹10, increasing the minimum pay per order to ₹30, increasing payments for batch orders, pay parity among staff, not imposing unnecessary fines, new uniform T-shirts every three months and new delivery bags every 11 months.  

In a statement, Swiggy said: “There are some delays in deliveries reported in certain parts of Chennai today [Monday, May 22]. Our team on ground is actively working to resolve this. We are confident that our services will be normalised soon.”