Swiggy accused of manipulating delivery executives' incentive structure

Despite several warnings and continuous disputes regarding reviewing contracts, often termed as one-sided in favour of companies, there has been no end to allegations of unethical business practices by food aggregators.

In the latest development, Swiggy's delivery executives are in the midst of a battle, alleging that the food aggregator's management is manipulating its incentive and payment system against them.

While the minimum payment per order to an executive was reduced to Rs 15 from Rs 35 by Swiggy in July this year, the food delivery major is being accused of playing tricks against its delivery executives by drying up orders during peak time.

In Swiggy's previous incentive scheme, an executive would receive Rs 200 as an incentive when their day's earnings crossed Rs 900. But as they would get near the Rs 900 figure, orders started drying up, keeping them away from being eligible for the incentive.

The executives also missed out on the Rs 100 incentive on earning Rs 350 during peak hours due to similar tricks and manipulations. The executives further alleged that the company’s management has taken away the waiting charge for the executives.

The company is only giving incentives for those delivery agents who were hired six months ago. The newly hired executives are not given any incentives, cited a Deccan Chronicle report.

To make the situation even worse, these older employees keep getting fired for reasons which include cancelling an order or not logging in at the correct time, added the report.

A Swiggy spokesperson denied the allegations claiming they were baseless and said that its delivery partners were receiving proper incentives based on their duration of work and the number of orders.

The spokesperson further claimed that the executives are also aptly compensated if they choose to deliver during erratic weather conditions, festivals, or late at night.

This is not the first time when Swiggy's management and its delivery executives have been up in arms. Earlier in May, a section of its executives in Kochi had protested over a reduction in payment scale.

Meanwhile, the labour and employment ministry of India has proposed a social security draft providing gig workers insurance (life and disability), health and maternity benefits, old-age protection and several other rights. The voice of delivery executives will be strengthened when such a proposal becomes law.

Besides the central government, states such as Karnataka are also in talks on framing guidelines for the emerging ‘gig economy’ comprising ride-hailing, food delivery, and e-commerce platforms.