Food delivery workers under the aegis of Food Online Delivery Workers’ Union marched to the zonal office of Swiggy in Kochi on Tuesday in support of the indefinite strike by the company’s workers across Ernakulam. The strike began nine days ago.
Negotiations in the presence of district labour officials to end the strike on two occasions failed with delivery workers sticking to their demand for higher remuneration and the company saying it had offered consistent and reliable income opportunities to hundreds of its delivery partners.
V.S. Sunilkumar, representing the workers’ union, said hundreds of protesting Swiggy delivery workers joined the march to the Edappally office of the company. A protest meeting was inaugurated by former MLA P. Raju. He said workers in Ernakulam had demanded that they be paid ₹25 per 2.5 km, and that there were differences of opinion regarding the base distance to be covered for minimum payment made by the company.
Mr. Sunilkumar also said that the workers had not engaged in violence. He was reacting to a statement from Swiggy that it never encouraged violence by the striking delivery workers, and that the company did not engage in intimidation. It also expressed concern over a few of its striking delivery partners taking the law into their own hands and harassing fellow workers.
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