'We Are Not Machines': Workers' Association to Zomato Over 10-Minute Delivery

Zomato delivery partners.

(Photo Courtesy: Zomato)

Two days after Zomato announced its 10-minute food delivery service, Zomato Instant, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), a collective of about 35,000 delivery personnel, urged Zomato to treat its workers humanely.

IFAT's General Secretary Shaik Salauddin said that the companies such as Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit are luring customers with the “fantasy of instant delivery” but are concealing matters related to transport workers, The News Minute reported.

Zomato's attempt to be the fastest to provide groceries and meals to acquire more customers is putting the lives of delivery partners at stake, he added.

“It is incentive driven work conditions that these platforms actively shape which incites the delivery workers to chase those incentives targets that motivate delivery workers to resort to such acts,” he reportedly said.

While Zomato has said that the service won't put any pressure on the delivery partners to deliver food faster, nor penalise them for late deliveries, the move has faced considerable backlash on social media.

Workers Penalised for Zomato’s Faults: IFAT

"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," Shaik Salauddin told Business Insider, "As a result delivery partners/workers have been penalised quite a few times.”

He urged the company to take care of the issues and the concerns raised by delivery partners before it promises "lightning fast" delivery to customers.

“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."

Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal explained the company's 10-minute delivery plans on Twitter, after users raised concerns about the safety of the delivery agents as well as the quality of the food.

He insisted that the 10-minute delivery is as safe for Zomato's delivery partners as 30-minute delivery and will lead to lesser time spent on the road, per order.

Zomato expects to cut down on kitchen preparation time and distance travelled per order.