Thousands of gig workers are on nationwide strike on New Year's Eve. They claim that 10-minute delivery deadlines are leading to fears over safety, and they are not even guaranteed regular payments.
00:00Okay, the second gig workers strike inside a week. Let's raise the big questions.
00:06Are e-commerce companies putting business above workers' safety?
00:11Are gig workers being exploited?
00:14Joining me now, Sheikh Salaudin, National General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers.
00:21Join me from Hyderabad.
00:22And Nishant Gora, co-founder Grab.in, India's leading last mile logistics company.
00:28I want to come to you, Sheikh Salaudin, first.
00:30Because this is your second strike inside a week.
00:35What do you really want?
00:38What is your biggest demand?
00:41Do you think anything will change from these strikes?
00:44Do you think anything will change because of these strikes?
00:51Yeah, change, sir.
00:53Change, see.
00:54See, if you will see that all aggregator platform companies are on their own work.
01:01The delivery boy who raised the first 10-15 rupiah, 20 rupiah, 20 rupiah, you have given the offer of 125 rupiah, 1500 rupiah to each order.
01:15You have scored on their own work and also on your team.
01:44today is new year's eve
01:48today is new year's eve
01:50today is new year's eve
01:52this company will give you 10-15
01:54rupees per delivery
01:5510-15 rupees is what you get per delivery
01:58how do you know things will change
02:00come tomorrow
02:00this is one time payment
02:02yes
02:02we are talking about that
02:08electronic print media
02:10aggregator platform companies
02:12press release
02:13press release
02:15one day
02:16we are talking about
02:17our terms and conditions
02:20we are talking about
02:21we are talking about
02:225 days
02:23we are talking about
02:24we are talking about
02:25we will talk about
02:26we will talk about
02:27this problem
02:28we will resolve
02:28we will talk about
02:29we will talk about
02:30but no platform company
02:32has not done
02:34on the top of the workers
02:36in the past
02:37how much
02:38you have to tell
02:40notifications
02:41to send
02:41to Zomato
02:42zomato ne bumsers ko lagaya bumsers ko vehicle dake inke stores pe bheja warehouses pe bheja
02:49اور sate sate ye dho nahi hoke bhi aap tisra tariqa aap yeh dekho muzzle power money power
02:55nahi hoote huwe bhi unho ne ye dho ke alawa tisra joh hai apna PR ke liye PR ke liye joh hai
03:03bade bade actors ko bhi utarne ka kam kiya aur incentives immediately
03:09aaj hi kiyo yad hai sir morning se incentives agarja incentives aapko yad a rhe thay
03:14better unko price dena tha to hum pahle se bora ki aap yehi cheez dho regular dho
03:19salauddin ji salauddin ji it's a it's a very good point you are making why did they wake
03:27up only when the gig workers decided to go on strike nishan vora you want to respond to that
03:33because the fact is mr uh vora the truth of the matter is that there is a very coercive
03:38exploitative system going on here these gig workers don't have any real protection you expect
03:45or many of the companies expect them within 10 minutes to deliver there is no uh uh consistency
03:52in their payments this is an entirely a very large sector that is being exploited what is really going
03:59to change i hope in 2026 yeah uh thanks ajee so to begin with uh exploitation or i would uh first
04:09answer the question about incentives rolled out just today so having said that this is a standard uh
04:16practice of having incentives on 31st and it is all based on demand and supply if the number of riders
04:22required are less than the requirement the demand so yes the incentives go higher in fact uh sir would
04:28uh also be knowing about the fact that a lot of times the incentive comes in the evening itself
04:32like six o'clock we roll out incentives and not this is across i'm talking about all platforms
04:36across it's this is all based on algorithm that when the requirement is there they push for incentive
04:42number two exploitation or you know the pressure of delivering in 10 minutes it's 10 minutes is
04:48actually it's taken in the wrong context it's more of a marketing ploy no platform delivers in 10 minutes
04:54not even 90 percent of their orders are delivered in 10 minutes it's everything is based on a time
04:58motion study so but mr vora no no mr vora mr vora you are telling me that payments are based on
05:06algorithms you are telling me that the 10 minute 12 minute delivery time is a marketing ploy but the
05:12gig worker is trapped if tomorrow the gig worker doesn't deliver within a sufficient time he gets hit by the
05:19person who's ordered the delivery and the pressure builds on him you need to create conditions for
05:25the safety of gig workers surely so uh sir there is no security so there is no uh what you said there is no
05:35penalty or fine for not delivering within the anticipated time given to the rider there is no no i don't i
05:42myself don't know any platform putting such fines on the rider yes if there's a consistent pattern of
05:48missing deadlines and that deadline is also based on the map the time given by the distance how much
05:54travel time is there basis that the time is taken so if there there is a case where a lot of these are
06:01missed then definitely there is action taken but it's not that one delivery you delay or something like
06:06this and there is action taken and that is across all platform nowhere this happens so uh i would disregard
06:12that uh but but what are the you know but what is the no no what is the guarantee what is the financial
06:18security they have paltry take-home earnings they have to pay for the fuel expenses at times emis are
06:24there for their vehicles i mean are we saying that simply because these large companies these large
06:31platform based apps that are providing this delivery uh have a in some cases almost a monopoly over the
06:38market the gig worker at the bottom of the chain is not benefiting from this expanding sector
06:44sir i would i would uh see it the other way right now the most price asset is a gig rider there is
06:50actually more demand than supply of riders you go to any platform right now there is more demand than
06:56than supply and on the other side riders are not available so you'll have each platform trying to
07:03push the other platform riders so if you'll say the payout the payout on basis of uh what is the uh
07:10revenue generated from the orders and what they're getting paid is actually quite absurd it's quite a
07:16big number and it is going to remain this way because there is a deficiency of riders so i if you ask me
07:23me there is no what there is no right let me let me ask mr salaudin mr salaudin kitna milta
07:33whoohs salaudin k fincott in st using motto language very few others they are giving you a
07:34peculiar store pressure of irish labor landlord whoає 향 on brand newますisters SEÑAT
07:39van deansha Highland says hi stream from first of all people said taktna milta then
07:41your sales will see some of the traffic calls also freely then um it's only 1 ori
07:44over the last few people said yes
07:45never again the
07:53simple pa…"
07:54key appeal for the leadyler
07:58survey
08:00I would like to ask you a question, if your ads are official, you can get 60,000 rupiah in a month.
08:09I will give you a strike call-off.
08:12We are going to ask you a question.
08:15If you ask your ads, if you guarantee your business,
08:19if you ask your ads, if you ask your kids,
08:24if you ask your ads, they are not fulfilled.
08:26If you get 60,000 rupiah,
08:33this is not the problem.
08:35If you ask your ads, if you ask your ads,
08:41I will get 80% of them.
08:45I will not stop them.
08:47I will not get them.
08:49And I want to ask you, sir, just our basic demands, first of all, how do you pay out?
08:57All companies, when you need to pay workers, you need to pay 80, 60, and then 40, and then 20,
09:07and now you need to pay 8, 9, 10.
09:10Now, we have a second demand.
09:11Now, we have a second demand.
09:13We have to tell you 10 minutes to deliver,
09:17if you will take a call, you will be missing,
09:19and you will be missing.
09:20There are many other people who have been missing.
09:23There are many people who have been missing.
09:25They are missing.
09:27These three demands.
09:29I have to tell you,
09:31this is the end of the day.
09:34That's the end of the day.
09:39we say you have to block your IDs to block your IDs to block your IDs to be transparent
09:45no one has no transparency, no one has a complaint, no one has no ID to block your IDs to block
09:51your IDs to block your IDs to make no reason.
09:55What is the average?
09:58What is the average?
10:00Average how much?
10:02How much?
10:03Average gig worker is making how much?
10:06I would define it in the other way.
10:21If you see average earning per average.
10:23The point is, is a structure going to be created?
10:31I think my final question really is that.
10:33Will there be a structure created to ensure uniform standards or not?
10:38This is already in play because the beauty is the government has identified or, you know, given status to a gig worker just couple of months back.
10:48And they are looking at having policies around it.
10:50And so, yes, there is a structure coming in and it is needed.
10:53It is absolutely needed.
10:54I understand the grievances sir was talking about.
10:58One thing is, yes, there is a, there is a bad stigma because a lot of these companies that come in initially, they give absolutely absurd amount of money.
11:07And then they roll down or roll down their incentives, which makes it difficult for anyone to sustain.
11:12That is not a correct play.
11:14But a few bad apples does not mean the industry is bad.
11:17And yeah, you will have systems coming in place for the other things.
11:21Okay.
11:24And let, let me leave it there.
11:26A few bad apples you are saying does not mean the industry is bad.
11:29Yes, gig workers is a huge opportunity for many to get employment, but the employment cannot be exploitative.
11:36It cannot be based on a, on a method that ends up treating these gig workers simply as sweat labor.
11:44That's the challenge before many of our platform based delivery apps.
11:49I appreciate my guests joining me here on a day when several gig workers across India did join the strike.
Be the first to comment