Food delivery to be hit as partners log off till Sunday- The New Indian Express

By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Ordering food online is going to be difficult over this weekend as food delivery partners (FDPs) have logged off in protest until Sunday against a new system of time slots introduced by the food delivery apps for them to log in. The new system threatens to affect the earnings of FDPs as it changes from peak to non-peak hours.

United Food Delivery Partners’ Union President, Vinay Sarathi told The New Indian Express that FDPs are unhappy with the new system brought in by the companies, including Zomato, and is not acceptable.

“Unlike usual, time slots have been created for FDPs to join and operate. These slots are fixed like 7-11am, 11am-1pm and on on. Also attendance to these slots is being reserved for company’s preferred FDPs. This directly effects earnings as service charges change during peak and non-peak hours,” he said. Most FDPs are on strike protesting against the food delivery apps. Members of the Union announced a three-day strike starting from April 15.  

Impact of strike felt across B’luru

Its impact was already seen in most parts of Bengaluru on the first day where services was hit in areas like BTM Layout, HSR, RR Nagar, Katriguppe, Jalahalli and Kenergi. Members of the union are gradually extending their strike to across Karnataka. The Union has one lakh workers and most of them have shown solidarity to be a part of the strike.

Chetan a food delivery partner, who is finding it difficult to make ends meet said: “The imbroglio is prompted by the new payment system introduced around a month back. The new system called as gigs has brought down the earnings by 30 per cent and has increased the working hours. Despite repeated requests this was not addressed, so now we decided to go on a strike,” he said. Sarathi said earlier an FDP could log off when it was not a suitable time, but now after slots have been introduced, the dynamics change. 

Swiggy spokesperson said, “Although we have heard rumours of an upcoming strike, we have been assured that our partners are not going to take part and the strike is limited only to Zomato partners. We are not planning on implementing anything related to time slotting for FDPs and will not be reducing earnings of the partners.” 

A spokesperson from Zomato said revisions have been introduced and it seems to a be case of misunderstanding. The changes have been introduced to help students and those in other streams. The issues will be clarified with the FDPs, the spokesperson said.