Deliveries: India’s New Year’s Eve are at risk due to a nationwide strike by gig workers
Deliveries: As thousands of gig workers affiliated with major delivery and e-commerce platforms get ready for a statewide strike on Wednesday, New Year’s Eve festivities throughout India are sure to see significant interruptions.
Concerns about delays, cancellations, and service outages on one of the biggest business days of the year have been raised by delivery partners working with firms like Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto, Amazon, and Flipkart announcing plans to log off their applications or drastically curtail work.
The Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) and the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) jointly called for the strike, with assistance from many regional collectives that operate in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi-NCR, West Bengal, and portions of Tamil Nadu.
According to union organizers, the demonstration is a reflection of gig workers’ growing dissatisfaction with their diminishing pay, increasing workloads, and lack of fundamental labor safeguards.
Due to year-end discounts and New Year’s festivities, December 31 is often one of the busiest days for online buying, rapid commerce, and food delivery. Industry experts caution that widespread strike participation might have a negative effect on last-mile delivery operations, which would damage merchants, supermarket delivery services, and restaurants that depend significantly on app-based logistics to reach revenue goals.
The unions claim that as per-order earnings continue to decline, delivery partners are being pressured to put in more hours. Concerns have also been voiced by employees over the absence of job security, arbitrary algorithmic fines, hazardous working conditions, and lack of insurance coverage. Gig workers claim they are treated like disposable labor even though businesses refer to them as “partners” and the foundation of India’s digital commerce ecosystem.
It is anticipated that customers in key cities like Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Kolkata would see lengthy wait times, order cancellations, and restricted delivery options all day long. As regional collectives join the strike, other tier-2 cities are also anticipated to be impacted.
According to unions, the protest’s goal is to urgently raise awareness of the structural problems gig workers face, not to inconvenience consumers. They have urged platform firms to have discussions and put in place more equitable compensation plans, social security benefits, and open rules.