This is a ten minute-long gamble with a gig workers life tweeted Congress MP Karti Chidambaram as he reacted to Zomato's newest delivery offering of 10 minute food at your doorstep. Zomato Founder responded via Twitter to the concerns reassuring that there is no 'pressure on delivery', but that was not adequate for Karti.
Not satisfied with the explanation Sivagangai MP posted on the microblogging site seeking 'meaningful answers' from Zomato's founder Deepinder Goyal as he penned 12 pointers directed towards the safety and supervision of 'gig economy' workers/delivery personnel who will be carrying out the 10-minute delivery.
This is not the first time the Sivagangai MP has raised concerns over safety , need for regulation and insurance requirements for gig workers. In Parliament on Monday, Karti P Chidambaram stated that gig economy-based companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber and OLA are valued in millions and that their valuation was based on the ‘Turn Around Time’ principle, which is basically the shortest time taken to deliver.
“We have delivery companies which promise delivery of food or other products within 10min or 30 min, but the delivery is done by workers who are not employees of the company, who are driving a personal two-wheeler to do a commercial delivery while carrying a huge weight with them," said the MP.
Karti wrote to Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari as well as app-based companies. He raised the possibility of gig workers being deprived of insurance coverage as they use personal vehicles for commercial purposes.
In his letter to Yadav, the Congress MP said it was a matter of concern that many companies that employ gig workers refuse to accord them the status of ‘employee’ and “instead utilise a ridiculous thesaurus of words to abdicate responsibilities towards these workers."