Zomato Delivery Executives Go on Strike in Mumbai, Bengaluru After Food App Slashes Incentives
Thousands of Zomato delivery executives went on a strike in Mumbai and Bengaluru on Monday after the online food aggregator introduced new incentive structure, which offers less money per delivery.
Mumbai, September 17: Thousands of Zomato delivery executives went on a strike in Mumbai and Bengaluru on Monday after the online food aggregator introduced new incentive structure, which offers less money per delivery. Under the revised rate card, Zomato reduced the remuneration per delivery to Rs 30 from Rs 40 in Bengaluru. A similar pay cut has been implemented in Mumbai. Restaurants have been conveyed by Zomato that there could be a rider churn in this week. Zomato to Launch 18 Originals Shows With Sanjeev Kapoor, Banake Dikha with Sumukhi Suresh on September 16.
According to agitating delivery executives, they will have to do more deliveries to earn the same incentive under the new payout structure. "Roughly, we have to do three-four extra deliveries for each level of incentives. I end up doing deliveries for at least 12 hours per day, and sometimes it has gone up to 14-15 hours as well," Prashanth, Zomato food delivery executive, was quoted by Times of India as saying. Zomato Layoffs: Food Delivery App Sacks 540 Employees From Its Customer Support Team, Fires 10% of Its Workforce.
Under the new incentive structure, delivery executives will get an incentive of Rs 850 for 46 touchpoints, meaning Rs 18.6 per touchpoint. Earlier, they used to get Rs 20 per touchpoint. Zomato, however, said that reduced average delivery time (less than 30 minutes) has enabled its delivery partners to perform more deliveries in the same amount of time.
"Different metrics such as base pay, user satisfaction, delivery touchpoints and minimum guarantee etc. help us appreciate our delivery partners in accordance with their efforts," a Zomato spokesperson said in a statement. "Reduced average delivery time and increased system efficiency have enabled our delivery partners to perform more deliveries in the same amount of time," the spokesperson added.
On September 7, Zomato had laid off 541 people -- 10 per cent of the company's strength -- across customer, merchant and delivery partner support teams. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven bots and automation in resolving customer queries led to an overall reduction in direct order-related support queries, the company had said. "We regret the inconvenience caused to our users and are continuously working to resume our services in the affected areas," said Zomato.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 17, 2019 09:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).