Partners’ association tells Zomato to see delivery executives as human beings

• Zomato has accused that it is taking necessary steps to ensure the safety of their partners and not put them under pressure.
• IFAT is an association of 35,000 service professionals working with Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Ola and others.
• The company will start its 10-minute delivery operation in Gurugram from next month.

Even as Zomato is celebrating its entry into the 10-minute food delivery space, the delivery partners — who are going to be executing it on the ground — do not seem too excited about it.

The Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) have called out the company for not fixing current issues in their system. The association has urged the company to treat their delivery partners as human beings.

Shaik Salauddin, the national general secretary of IFAT and the founder state head of TGPWU, noted, “Zomato in most of the cases has not been able to resolve issues like leaked meals, which arises from faulty packaging and executing fast delivery. As a result delivery partners/workers have been penalised quite a few times. While planning to provide 10-min [sic] deliveries to its customers Zomato needs to resolve these issues and concerns of the workers.”

“Further we urge Zomato to look [at] their delivery workers as human beings [as they] are more than data points for the algorithm to manage,” he added. Notably, IFAT is an association of 35,000 service professionals working with Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Ola and others.

He further noted that the company should take care of the issues and the concerns raised by the delivery partners before it assures the customers of “lightning fast” delivery. The company also needs to provide resting areas, access to bathrooms, charging stations and wifi access to its delivery partners before starting “finishing stations” for quick delivery in Gurugram, the association added.

This is not the first time that someone has raised issues with the 10-minute delivery model. Previously, a netizen raised a petition to urge companies like Swiggy, Blinkit (Grofers), Zepto and Dunzo to do away with their 10-minute delivery services.

The petition noted that the 10-minute delivery services adds extra pressure on delivery partners, who have to resort to overspeeding and traffic rule violations to fulfill these orders on time as well as avoid being penalised by the platforms. IFAT had also agreed to the content of the petition.

Zomato has mentioned that it will not be showing the delivery time to delivery partners or penalising them for late delivery. The company has taken this step to ensure the safety of their partners and not put them under pressure. The company will roll its 10-minute delivery service in Gurugram next month and later look to expand to other cities.

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