Around 10,000 to 20,000 Amazon delivery staff in India will host and participate in a nationwide strike within a few days. They have raised a few demands like increasing commission rates, insurance claims, and not making the know-your-customer (KYC) process compulsory for every customer of Amazon (Gadgets 360). The strike will continue for an entire day and it will take place at several warehouses of Amazon in metropolitan cities of Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Pune. This will affect a huge number of Amazon customers as the undelivered packages will start piling up in the city warehouses, said Trade unions Indian Federation of App-based Transport workers (IFAT) and Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union.
Shaik Salauddin, General Secretary of IFAT National said to Gadgets 360 that 10,000 to 20,000 workers will host the strike later this month. And, this will be the first time in the history of Amazon that an entire country’s logistics operations will be disrupted. The small strikes are eventually taking bigger steps as many delivery workers walked out of Amazon a few days ago.
Earlier strikes by Amazon workers
More than 1,000 delivery staff of Amazon hosted strikes in Delhi and Pune as hundreds of Amazon delivery workers left their job. But, now all the workers have united together and called for a nationwide strike. The earlier strikes hosted by the delivery staff didn’t affect Amazon’s existing policies in any way. But, the company rather retaliated and took action against a few workers who decided to participate in the strikes, said an unnamed source to Gadgets 360. Since the earlier strikes didn’t bear fruitful action, all the delivery staff across the country decided to put pressure together on Amazon. If the company seems reluctant to take any positive measures for its delivery staff, then the time span of the strike is expected to extend.
The financial crisis has been triggered after the lockdown for most of the working-class people. IFAT informed in a press release yesterday that the average earning of an Amazon delivery worker was Rs 20,000 per month before the lockdown. But, currently, the earning has stripped down to half of it. So, it is expected that the workers will demand an increase in commission rate when they can barely survive.
Delivery policies of Amazon
The main reason for the chaos caused between the company and its delivery staff is the new policy issued on 15th March. According to this new policy, the delivery staff will receive Rs 10 for delivering each small order and Rs 15 for delivering large orders. But, according to IFAT, this amount was Rs 35 for each order beforehand. The delivery staff has demanded that for each big parcel that is delivered in a big van should be paid Rs 35 each and Rs 20 for each small package delivered. They also want the company to fix the pay to Rs 25 per parcel for ‘I have space’ pick-up points.
The other demand that is expected to be fulfilled by Amazon is to fix the payment of Rs. 20 per parcel for two-wheeler delivery staff and Rs. 70–80 for persons using vans (Gadgets 360). The unions involved in the strike also demanded that the company should pay Rs 480 to each delivery staff for enrolling 20-25 wallets and that they shouldn’t insist on the KYC process for Amazon Pay Customers.
How did Amazon respond?
The nationwide strike by the Amazon delivery staff will have an impact on lakhs of customers across India. Amazon in response to the news of the strike by its delivery workers has said to gadgets 360 that they are listening to the feedbacks by the delivery staffs. “There are no disruptions in any of our delivery operations, and our partners continue to work with us to deliver on time to Amazon customers across the country,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We place enormous value in having regular conversations with our partners, listening to their feedback, and addressing them effectively to continuously improve their experience.” The spokesperson further mentioned that each delivery associate of Amazon was covered under different insurance schemes and that KYC is completely optional.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more