New Year’s Eve deliveries may be hit as gig workers call for strike on Dec 31

New Year’s Eve deliveries across India could face significant disruption as thousands of delivery partners, working with leading food, grocery, quick-commerce, and e-commerce platforms, have gone on a strike on Wednesday (December 31). This comes in the wake of another strike on December 25 that failed to garner much support and participation.

The strike is over pay transparency, unfair working conditions, absence of insurance cover, unsafe working conditions and the growing use of 10-minute deliveries and a ban on the model.

Call by gig unions

Delivery workers associated with platforms such as Swiggy, Blinkit, Zomato, Zepto, Amazon, and Flipkart are expected to log off or limit their availability during the day, according to an IANS report.

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The planned action is likely to result in delays, cancellations, and patchy service on what is typically one of the busiest days for online orders.

The protest has been called by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union and the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), with backing from several regional collectives.

Unions said workers from Delhi-NCR, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, and parts of Tamil Nadu are expected to take part.

New Year sales to be hit

With New Year’s Eve seeing a sharp spike in demand for food delivery, groceries, and e-commerce services, the strike is expected to affect consumers across multiple cities.

Analysts warn that any large-scale disruption to last-mile delivery services could impact restaurants, retailers, and platforms that rely heavily on app-based logistics to meet year-end demand.

Union representatives say the strike reflects growing frustration among workers over shrinking earnings, longer hours, and the lack of basic labour protections.

Workers flag falling payouts

Many workers have raised concerns over reduced payouts per order, absence of insurance cover, unsafe working conditions, and algorithm-driven penalties.

Also Read: Karnataka govt passes Gig Workers’ Bill

Despite being labelled as “partners,” many say they face job insecurity and are excluded from key benefits.

Customers in major metros, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata, are likely to face longer wait times and limited availability throughout the day, the unions warned.

Organisers said the protest aims to press platforms to address structural issues, rather than target customers.

They have called on companies to initiate dialogue on fairer pay models, social security provisions, and more transparent working policies.

Govt intervention urged

In a letter to Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, IFAT said it represents around 4,00,000 app-based delivery and transport workers across India.

The federation noted that a flash strike held on December 25 had led to a 50-60 per cent disruption in services in several cities.

That protest, they said, was intended to highlight issues such as unsafe delivery practices, falling earnings, arbitrary account suspensions, and lack of social security.

However, the unions alleged that platform companies did not engage with workers following the 25 December protest. Instead, they claimed firms resorted to threats, algorithmic penalties, and account deactivations, while using third-party agencies to weaken the strike effort.

Delivery services to be affected

With the December 31 strike, delivery services, particularly food, groceries, and last-minute online shopping, could be severely affected in cities like Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, as well as several tier-2 towns.

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In its letter, IFAT urged the government to regulate platform companies under labour laws and to prohibit unsafe delivery practices such as extreme fast-delivery deadlines.

The federation is calling for urgent government intervention and has requested tripartite talks involving the Centre, platform companies, and worker unions.

Meanwhile, many YouTubers and content creators have urged people to boycott these apps for one day to support gig workers. "Everyone knows the extreme conditions in which they work, and the algorithm decides their pay. They are under pressure to deliver in 10 minutes, and the algorithm randomly goes up and down,” said YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in an X post.