Govt tells quick commerce firms to drop ‘10-min delivery’ deadline

Other aggregators are expected to follow in the coming days. “The move is aimed at ensuring greater safety, security and improved working conditions for gig workers,” a government official said.

The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) and the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) “welcomed and strongly appreciated the timely intervention” of the Labour Minister, which has resulted in major delivery aggregators removing the “unsafe 10-minute delivery deadlines”.

“The 10-minute delivery model forced delivery partners into dangerous road behaviour, extreme stress and unsafe working conditions…this intervention is a victory for all gig and platform workers, especially in the context of the nationwide flash strike and protests held from December 25-31, which highlighted unsafe work practices imposed by platforms,” said Shaik Salauddin, founder president, TGPWU and national general secretary, IFAT.

Thousands of delivery workers went on a nationwide strike on New Year’s Eve, demanding better pay, safety protection and social security. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, and the wider start-up and investor community, then began posting data on X within days, arguing that critics don’t understand how the gig economy works.

Among the most vocal voices in favour of the workers was AAP MP Raghav Chadha, who has been raising the issue both inside Parliament and outside. He spent New Year’s Eve with delivery riders in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, saying such workers have helped build instant commerce companies but are now forced to protest just to be heard.

The online arguments reflected the broader debate over India’s gig economy, which employed around 7.7 million people in 2020-21 according to a NITI Aayog report. The figure has likely risen now, and is estimated to touch 23.5 million by 2029-30.

As per Goyal, the 10-minute delivery promise is enabled by store density and planning, not by asking delivery partners to ride faster. According to him, dark stores are located close to neighbourhoods, items are picked and packed in two-and-a-half minutes, and delivery partners typically travel less than two kilometres at an average speed of 15 kilometres per hour. Crucially, delivery partners are not shown the promised delivery time on their app, he said.

But the workers say that the per-delivery rate on such platforms has been declining, with a milestone-based and distance-dependent incentive structure taking its place. This means that workers get paid extra cash for completing a select number of deliveries per day, with the distance they drive to complete the deliveries also playing a role in the structure.

The government has been taking measures to bring gig and platform workers into the ambit of labour laws to ensure social security coverage for them. Last year, the government notified the Code on Social Security, bringing gig and platform workers under a formal welfare framework for the first time. It enables their registration on a national database and opens access to schemes covering health, disability, accident insurance and old-age support. It aims to give millions of workers basic protections despite their non-traditional employment structure.

The Code envisions the creation of a Social Security Fund for gig and platform workers with contribution from Central and state governments, corporate social responsibility, fines collected due to compounding, etc.

Aggregators such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy and Zomato will have to contribute 1-2 per cent of their annual turnover towards this fund, with the total contribution capped at 5 per cent of the amount payable by them to the workers.