500 Swiggy executives on strike, no delivery in most areas of Pune

Demanding better pay, almost 500 delivery executives of online food delivery firm Swiggy have gone on strike, halting service in most part of Pune.

The executives or delivery partners came on road protesting against the downward revision of incentives and compensations.

According to a Pune Mirro report quoting company's delivery executive, they were paid Rs 50 for every delivery earlier. This was later reduced to Rs 40 with a commitment of not going any lower on the incentive. The management dropped the delivery compensation yet again to Rs 30 while increasing the travel distance from our location to the restaurant to 5 km from 2.7 km. Similarly, the distance travelled by the executives from the restaurant to point of delivery was expanded from 5 to 7 km.

Executives also said that they have to shell out money from their own pockets for petrol in their vehicles for this increased distance. We have also been threatened with physical harm by Swiggy management, they said.

Deliveries in areas such as Kothrud, Shivajinagar, Baner, Aundh, Bavdhan and Swargate have stopped. Customers in these areas are greeted with the message that their area is 'unserviceable' when they click on the mobile app. The employees also carried a rally from Kothrud to Shivajinagar on Tuesday.

They also insist that executives from other parts of the city will soon join them in this fight, too.

Swiggy, in a response, to Entrackr said, "The company's services in a few parts of Pune have been disrupted due to intimidation by a small group of people with regard to the revised incentive scheme. It is our constant endeavour to incentivize our delivery executives over and above their fixed payment- an industry-best by itself. The incentive scheme is in alignment with the efforts of our partners on-ground, and takes various parameters including peak hours and distance into consideration."

"We continue to be committed to serving the city with the best food experience, while providing a steady income to our delivery partners. We have already resumed services in a few of these areas; others will follow shortly. We regret the inconvenience to our patrons in Pune," said the company in a statement.

Meanwhile, restaurants in many areas have roped in other online firms like Zomato and Foodpanda for their delivery services. Burger King which receives good numbers of demand clubbed with Zomato for time being, its executive said.

Swiggy is considered the best-funded food delivery start-ups in the country, having raised at about $155 million. Only behind Zomato, which has raised $224 million to date.

However, while Zomato offers restaurant listings and food delivery, Swiggy is purely into food delivery business.

Swiggy, which competes with Zomato and Foodpanda India, currently operates in nine cities—Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. The company is also piloting its own kitchens in Bengaluru.

Recently, global investment banking firm Jefferies has marked up the valuation of food-tech major Zomato to $865 million from $500