Swiggy denies their delivery partners are underpaid

Food delivery service company Swiggy on Thursday put out a statement clarifying that most of their delivery partners have made Rs 45 per order in the last week.

The delivery service company claimed that the high performing partners make over Rs 100 per order and their partners earn incentives over and above this which in turn makes their monthly service fee much higher.

"We would like to assert that most active partners have made over Rs 45 per order in the last week, with the high performing partners making over Rs 100 per order. Our partners earn incentives over and above this making their monthly service fee much higher," the Swiggy statement clarified.

This comes after some delivery executives staged a protest on Wednesday against a drop in their pay as per the new payment structure put in place by the company in Chennai.

They alleged that their income has dropped during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and now they are receiving only Rs 10 per delivery.

The food delivery service refuted such claims, and said, "No active Swiggy delivery partner in the city makes only Rs 15 or lesser per order on average. We understand the efforts put in by our delivery partners in making Swiggy accessible to consumers and maintain an honest approach in enabling a sustainable service fee."

Swiggy further claimed that as of August 20, it is serving 95 per cent of Chennai.

The food delivery service company further clarified, "Over the last couple of days, we have had a positive dialogue with our partners to explain the revised pay-outs and assuage their concerns. As a result of this positive dialogue, most of our partners are back to delivering with us and we're serving 95 per cent of the city of Chennai as of today (Thursday, August 20)."

The company further said "regular competitive benchmarking" shows that its delivery partners received an "industry-best" service fee, even after a revised structure.

"This Rs 15 component is only one of the seven components of the service fee. Naturally, no active delivery partners in the city have earned only this component," it added.

The company ensured that its service fee is "sustainable" even in the "most difficult of times".

"During the lockdown, when many cities were shut, we financially aided delivery partners who continued to log-in despite not being able to deliver any orders. In an industry first, we supported close to 40,000 delivery partners to the tune of Rs 18 crores in earnings guarantee to tide through the lockdown," it asserted.

Swiggy further claimed that in the last 24 hours it has witnessed a steady increase in the number of partners doing deliveries with the food delivery platform.

The company assured that it "will continue to address any lingering concerns so that we can get back to our original service levels in the city at the earliest.