Blinkit Delivery Partners Strike Over Pay Reduction; Services Disrupted In Delhi, Mumbai

Days after Zomato-owned quick commerce platform Blinkit announced a massive spike in revenue for FY24, delivery executives in Delhi and Mumbai staged protests over the last weekend, disrupting services in parts of these cities. 

Inc42 has learnt Blinkit deliveries in South Delhi neighbourhoods such as Kalkaji, Chittaranjan Park (CR Park), and Govindpuri were temporarily halted due to the strikes. Delivery partners in these neighbourhoods held strikes over a recent change in Blinkit’s weekend’s payout structure for the delivery executives. 

The strikes and protests resulted in delivery of some orders by even three hours, Inc42 has learnt after speaking with multiple delivery executives.

Zomato-owned Blinkit declined to comment on the development.

Inc42 has learnt that up to 30 delivery executives were deplatformed (i.e their IDs were blocked) by Blinkit. However, the company is said to have unblocked their IDs on Sunday, when the protests had cooled down.

“Earlier as per the pay structure, pay per order for weekends (Saturday and Sunday) were higher compared to weekdays. However, since last one month, Saturday has now been clubbed within the weekday pay structure, resulting in low income,” one of the delivery executives told Inc42. 

For the uninitiated, earlier Blinkit used to pay INR 50 for the weekend pay, whereas around INR 25-30 was paid for the deliveries on weekdays. This excludes the surge price. 

To address concerns of these delivery executives, Blinkit offered higher payouts on Sunday and Monday. The higher payouts were on par with what the company pays during so-called surge hours, which are otherwise mostly restricted to peak order hours. 

Several social media posts suggested the strikes were not restricted to South Delhi, but also took place in several areas in Mumbai.

Incidentally, Delhi NCR is Blinkit’s largest market, accounting for over INR 1,700 Cr out of the total gross order value of INR 4,027 Cr for the platform in Q4 FY24. 

Blinkit’s Turnaround In FY24 After Protests

This is not the first time that Blinkit has faced such strikes from its delivery executives. Earlier this year, delivery executives in Malviya Nagar neighbourhood of Delhi staged protests due to Blinkit’s decision to move to a flat payout rate. Earlier, Blinkit used paid delivery executives depending on the time of the order.

Besides this, last year, hundreds of delivery executives in Delhi NCR held protests against the companies’ change in pay policies, resulting in over 100 dark stores being shut. These delivery executives even knocked on the gates of the labour commissioner, and submitted their demands. The dark stores resumed their operations after the company settled the issues with the delivery partners. 

In Q4 FY24, Blinkit reported an operating revenue of INR 769 Cr, a 112% higher than INR 363 Cr it reported in the same quarter last fiscal year. The startup further narrowed its loss by 82% to INR 37 Cr in Q4 FY24.

Blinkit’s GOV or gross order value soared 97% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 4,027 Cr in the quarter ended March 2024. In the quarterly reports, it was further reported that Blinkit had turned adjusted EBITDA positive right at the end of the fiscal year. 

In the quarterly results, it was further announced that the quick commerce platform will be nearly doubling the number of stores in its network. Currently, there are 526 dark stores, including the 75 new stores added during Q4F FY24 and Blinkit plans to add 100 more stores in the first quarter of FY25, CEO Albinder Dhindsa said last week.