Recently, an important change has been seen in the rapidly growing quick commerce sector of the country. Following strict advice from the Central Government, big platforms like Zepto, Swiggy and Blinkit have removed the claim of ’10 minutes delivery’ from their services. This step has been taken keeping in mind the safety of the delivery partners and the pressure on them.
Why did the government take this step?
According to reports, Union Labor Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had held a closed-door meeting with these companies last week. In the meeting, he clearly said that the promise of delivery in a very short time puts unnecessary pressure on the workers and can put their lives at risk. After this, companies were instructed to remove the time limit of ’10 minutes’ from their branding and advertisements.
Following government directives, Blinkit has changed its tagline from ‘10,000+ products in 10 minutes’ to ‘30,000+ products at your doorstep’. At the same time, Zepto and Swiggy have also started removing mention of 10-minute delivery from their marketing.
Gig workers welcomed the decision
This government action comes after nationwide strikes by gig workers in late December. Gig worker unions had demanded to end this model, calling it unsafe. Shaikh Salauddin, co-founder of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers, said delivery workers are not slaves to any algorithm and models like 10-minute delivery force them to work at a faster pace and in risky conditions.
What will change for delivery partners?
Gig workers say that the pressure is not only of time but also of low payment. In many cases, an employee gets very low wages even for delivering two orders simultaneously. Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha also supported this decision, saying that the timer running on the customer’s screen and ’10 minutes’ written on the bag increases mental stress on the delivery partners. With this intervention of the government, it is expected that the safety, respect and working conditions of gig workers working in the quick commerce sector will improve.
Comments are closed.