Harsh realities of delivery workers: a discussion

Zomato delivery partners sitting by a pavement — Zomato delivery partners rest in between orders. Pic: Sabah Virani

On October 22nd, Citizen Matters hosted a tweet chat with Kaveri Medappa, DeliveryBhoy (an anonymous Twitter handle of a former delivery worker), and Abhishek Sekharan to discuss the issues delivery workers deal with on a daily basis.

Kaveri is a researcher at University of Sussex, she is known for her work studying the experiences of delivery workers in Bangalore. DeliveryBhoy is an anonymous food delivery worker who brings focus to poor working conditions of gig workers in the country. Abhishek Sekharan, is a Researcher with Centre for Internet and Society CIS India doing interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies to advance discourse and regulatory practices.

The tweet chat was conducted following Citizen Matters’s story about gig workers in Mumbai, and how they prefer working for smaller companies that offer better working conditions.

The chat started by talking about the gap between what is promised to the delivery partner at the time of recruitment and the facilities provided after they sign up

It's not so much a quantitative gap as it is a qualitative one. Firstly, the sign up process is very random. You watch videos and you get to work. There's no human aspect to it. No one to tell us what happens when things go wrong and no real training. Also, we are lied to
— Delivery Bhoy (@DeliveryBhoy) October 22, 2021

Trainings are a PPT that a manager shows. Or post pandemic, I think everything was just in-app. As worker after worker will tell you, learning happens on the street. With other workers
— Kaveri Medappa (@kaveri_med) October 22, 2021

Yes just like laws for everyone. Set number of tasks, safety, set hours, a proper salary etc

You can't make an office employee work 16 hours a day just cos ur paying him based on how much work he does. Do you pause his salary when he takes a lunch or bathroom break?
— Delivery Bhoy (@DeliveryBhoy) October 22, 2021

It is speculative. And yes, it's a model which treats labour as a variable cost and a "risk" which needs to be minimised as much as possible. These platforms are all plumped up with venture capital money, who are basically gamblers. Six bets fail, two work.
— Kaveri Medappa (@kaveri_med) October 22, 2021

Cycle riders get paid less!
— Delivery Bhoy (@DeliveryBhoy) October 22, 2021

The conversation moved on to a pressing issue; what can the consumer do to make sure the delivery worker is compensated better?

You're absolutely right. No actors, no poets, no activists, No comedians, no new anchors… They're all fighting about everything else under the sun while ordering their food via Zomato. That's the main issue that stops them. What will they do if they uninstall the app?
— Delivery Bhoy (@DeliveryBhoy) October 22, 2021

Especially considering the fact that more and more workers who are joining these apps are over-qualified and have degrees, despite which they are unable to find suitable work. This raises larger questions around the state of employment in India
— Abhishek Sekharan (@Abhishek_s03) October 22, 2021

So I would vote for a cap on the number of orders per rider annd MOST importantly, the ability for a rider to see how much time he actually has to pick up and deliver an order. We are always in a hurry because we don't know whether we have ten or 15 mins to deliver
— Delivery Bhoy (@DeliveryBhoy) October 22, 2021

hard to say. There's no way for us to verify or check that cos all the data is controlled and managed centrally by the platforms. Have heard from unions that these tips also get arbitrarily deducted without adequate explanations being given to the workers
— Abhishek Sekharan (@Abhishek_s03) October 22, 2021

Guests also spoke about how this affected delivery workers in the pandemic, with hazardous working conditions and high levels of exposure to the virus, without having adequate support in terms of health insurance, or assistance during hospitalisation, or vaccination. We learnt that all costs associated with delivery including masks, sanitisers, and other protective equipment were borne by workers.

Covid temperature testing — Delivery workers were exposed to the virus without any assistance in place in case they catch the virus

The pandemic has increased unrealistic expectations and subjective measures of work quality such as contact-less delivery and quick delivery: workers bear these costs in the form of increased surveillance on their bodies, and a greater toll on their well-being.
— Centre for Internet and Society (@cis_india) October 22, 2021

The tweet chat shed light on some unethical practices of some food delivery companies through the lens of experts, researchers and on-ground workers.

If you haven’t already read last week’s story you can find it here.

Delivery workers prefer to work for smaller companies that offer better work conditions

Harsh realities of delivery workers: a discussion

A Citizen Matters tweet chat

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