Gig workers’ New Year’s Eve strike fizzles as Swiggy, Zomato roll out incentives

Zomato set peak-hour rates at around ₹120 to ₹150 per order during the early evening to midnight on New Year’s Eve, according to its letter to delivery partners reviewed by Mint. Depending on order volumes and availability, riders had the potential to earn around ₹3,000 throughout the day. The company also temporarily waived penalties for order refusals and cancellations.

Swiggy's year-end incentive structure allowed riders to earn up to about ₹10,000 across 31 December and 1 January, highlighting peak-hour earnings of up to ₹2,000 during busy evening hours, according to Swiggy's communication to its partners reviewed by Mint.

For online food and grocery delivery, base pay has steadily shrunk from roughly ₹60 per order earlier this year to about ₹40, and now to nearly ₹15 for a delivery, making nights like New Year’s Eve less a bonus than a brief reprieve, said workers Mint spoke with.

Nearly 150,000 delivery workers were expected to join the strike, but the actual number of riders who participated in the protest could not be ascertained.

“There is no unity among us to stand up for a cause, even if a couple of us want to go on a strike, there are others who’d still work today and earn more then why should we miss out on an opportunity to earn?" said one delivery worker in Bengaluru, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Swiggy and Zomato did not respond to queries sent by Mint.

Zomato chief executive officer Deepinder Goyal said in online posts on 1 January that the company’s platforms delivered record orders on New Year’s Eve.

“Zomato and Blinkit delivered at a record pace yesterday, unaffected by calls for strikes that many of us heard over the past few days. Support from local law enforcement helped keep the small number of miscreants in check, enabling 450,000+ delivery partners across both platforms to deliver more than 7.5 million orders (all-time high) to over 6.3 million customers during the day," he wrote. “This happened without any additional incentives for delivery partners—NYE does see higher incentives than usual days, and yesterday was no different than the past NYE days."

Restaurants also ramped up their preparedness for any disruption on 31 December. Fast food chain Wow! Momos, which runs over 700 outlets across the country, encouraged users to order through its own app by running exclusive discounts. It also partnered with Shadowfax and Rapido for deliveries as they were not part of the planned strike.

“This is also an opportunity to bring dining-in back to restaurants and we are also running offers specific to dining," said Sagar Daryani, founder and chief executive of Wow! Momos. “Business was hit by about 10% on Christmas, but we were better prepared on New Year’s Eve."

Had the strike been a success, the impact would have been significant. Assuming 60% higher order throughput on festive days like Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Karan Taurani of Elara Securities said a strike limited to select cities could have reduced order volumes by 10–20% on those days.

Gig workers have been holding protests to raise their demands. In March 2023, over 2,500 delivery workers went on strike against Blinkit after parent Eternal Ltd (formerly Zomato) cut the fixed payout. While it lasted only a few days, the strike resulted in Blinkit’s order volume falling 6% sequentially in the June quarter. In March this year, Urban Co.’s staff in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and New Delhi held a demonstration over what they called arbitrary ID blocking and unrealistic rating requirements.

Promised gains elusive

While the majority of delivery partners didn’t join the protest this time, the incentives announced by Swiggy and Zomato didn’t result in the expected increase in earnings.

According to some of the gig workers’ earnings dashboards seen by Mint, incentives offered on 31 December translated into long hours for limited gains. One delivery partner earned ₹844 after staying logged in for nearly 13 hours and completing 22 trips on New Year’s Eve, while another made ₹591 after more than 10 hours online and 16 deliveries. In a week, an average gig worker earns about ₹5,000-8,000.

“Why can’t they raise our payouts? Why is this only for one day?" said the delivery worker quoted above, as he waited outside a Swiggy Instamart dark store. “We work tirelessly every day, yet the money barely covers our expenses. Just maintaining my e-bike costs nearly ₹2,000 a week, fuel prices keep climbing, and our pay keeps shrinking. It feels like no matter how hard we work, it’s never enough."

Shaik Salauddin, founder of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) and co-founder of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), said the platforms’ year-end incentives were a distraction from systemic issues. “No advertisement can hide falling pay. No celebrity can erase unsafe conditions. No PR campaign can replace fair wages, safety, and dignity," he said. He added that delivery workers are demanding restoration of fair payout structures, an end to unsafe “10-minute delivery" models, protection against arbitrary penalties, and comprehensive social security, including health insurance, accident cover, and pension.

Salauddin also said these are corporate attempts to criminalize peaceful protest. “Invoking police action instead of engaging in dialogue shifts the issue from workers’ rights to fear and coercion. Gig workers will not be silenced—they deserve fairness, safety, and dignity."

However, Goyal wrote in his 1 January post, “if a system were fundamentally unfair, it would not consistently attract and retain so many people who choose to work within it. The gig economy is one of India’s largest organized job creation engines, and its real impact will compound over time, when delivery partners’ children, supported by stable incomes and education, enter the workforce and help transform our country at scale."

Union writes to minister

In a 30 December letter addressed to the Union minister of labour and employment, IFAT national president Prashant Bhagesh Sawarkar, and general secretary Udaykumar Ambonkar warned of the human cost of platform competition.

“It is deeply concerning that commercial competition among platforms is being sustained at the cost of human lives and public safety," the letter said. It also accused delivery companies of using “intimidation, ID deactivations, algorithmic punishment, and third-party agencies to weaken collective action".

The Union leaders urged the ministry to intervene, calling for “fair and adequate wages, regulation of hourly rates, extended social security, and protection of workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain". They criticized current incentive-based systems, saying they “compromise safety, encourage overwork, and undermine dignity," and stressed the need for a tripartite dialogue between workers, platforms, and the government.

Gender inequalities were a central concern during the protests. Nirmal Gorana of the Gig and Platform Service Workers’ Union, which advocates rights for women workers, said the union helped mobilize the strike among women gig workers across Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi. GPSWU took charge of the strike against Urban Co. earlier this year.

Gorana said women are expected to work inside homes rather than at doorsteps, lack menstrual leave, get low payouts, and face the constant threat of ID deactivations. “These conditions make platform work not just insecure, but deeply exploitative for women workers."