India’s Ministry of Labor has urged the country’s fast-growing quick-commerce sector to prioritize the health and safety of gig workers.
The country’s Labor and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has met with executives from Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart and Zepto to end marketing promises of 10-minute deliveries and discuss ways to improve the safety and working conditions of delivery workers, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
While the instant delivery model has stagnated in other countries, it has taken off at an unprecedented pace in India in recent years as urban consumers have grown accustomed to having everything from PlayStation 5 to groceries delivered within 10 to 15 minutes.
Companies like Zepto, BlinkIt, and Instamart have raised and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into creating “dark stores,” individual warehouses strategically placed around neighborhoods that serve as hubs. These companies are hiring large numbers of delivery workers as competition intensifies in the country’s fast-growing e-commerce sector.
After the meeting, Blinkit removed a message promising delivery within 10 minutes, and competitors are expected to follow suit, according to Bloomberg.
The news comes just over a month after India granted legal status to millions of gig and platform workers under new labor laws. The labor law legally defines gig and platform workers and requires aggregators, such as food delivery and ride-hailing platforms, to contribute 1% to 2% of their annual revenue (up to 5% of payments to such workers) to a government-controlled social security fund.
Swiggy, BlinkIt and Zepto did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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