Highlights
- Zomato and Blinkit delivered over 75 lakh orders with 4.5 lakh delivery partners on New Year's Eve.
- Platforms offered Rs 120-150 per order during peak hours, with Swiggy promising up to Rs 10,000 across two days.
- Over 1.7 lakh workers threatened strike while unions claim 1 lakh participated, but operations remained largely unaffected.
Food delivery platforms Zomato, Swiggy and Magicpin reported record-breaking order volumes on New Year's Eve despite a nationwide strike call by gig workers' unions demanding better payouts and improved working conditions.
Eternal founder Deepinder Goyal announced that Zomato and Blinkit delivered more than 75 lakh orders to over 63 lakh customers, describing it as an "all-time high". The platforms remained "unaffected by calls for strikes", with over 4.5 lakh delivery partners completing deliveries.
Platforms offered enhanced incentives as part of their standard festive period practice. Zomato offered payouts of Rs 120 to Rs 150 per order during peak hours between 6pm and 12am, with promised earnings of up to Rs 3,000 over the day.
The platform temporarily waived penalties on order denials and cancellations.
An Eternal spokesperson told PTI "This is part of our standard annual operating protocol during festive periods, which typically see higher earning opportunities due to increased demand."
Swiggy offered delivery workers earnings of up to Rs 10,000 across December (31) and January (1), advertising peak-hour earnings of up to Rs 2,000 for the six-hour period on New Year's Eve.
The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers' Union (TGPWU) and Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) claimed over 1.7 lakh workers confirmed participation in the strike.
The Gig and Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU) said over 1 lakh workers from 22 cities joined, including 14,000 members from Delhi and Mumbai.
However, with over 12.7 m gig workers in India, the strike's impact remained minimal. Magicpin founder Anshoo Sharma said the company saw "no impact" of the strike.
In a joint statement, TGPWU and IFAT said the action followed the December strike (25), stating "Companies responded with silence – no rollback of reduced payouts, no dialogue with workers, and no concrete assurances on safety or working hours. This continued indifference has made today's strike unavoidable."
Goyal thanked delivery partners who "showed up despite intimidation" and described the gig economy as "one of India's largest organised job creation engines".
