Over 1,000 Blinkit delivery partners join Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto amid pay structure standoff: Report

Amid a standoff over change in pay structure, nearly 1,000 delivery executives employed with Zomato-owned Blinkit have jumped boats and joined competitors in the quick commerce business, according to a report on April 24.

Blinkit delivery executives have joined firms like Big Basket, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto, which are Blinkit’s competitors in the quick commerce business, Economic Times reported citing sources.

This is four days after Zomato informed the stock exchanges that most of the stores of Blinkit have resumed operations after being affected by the strike of delivery partners.

"We had to shut down some stores for a few days to ensure safety of our employees at stores and the delivery partners. Most of these stores have now resumed operations," Zomato said in a regulatory filing on April 19.

Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers India, was acquired last year by Zomato. Recently the operations of the platform were affected by the strike of delivery partners who were protesting against reduction in payouts per order.

Around 2,500 Blinkit delivery workers were on strike in April second week, after the company reduced the fixed payouts per delivery from Rs 25 to Rs 15. Workers in Delhi and Noida also protested against this move.

Several delivery workers have told the media that Blinkit used to pay Rs 50 per order last year to its early batch of delivery workers and Rs 25 per order to those who joined a few months back. On top of the per-order payouts, there also used to be fuel and delivery volume-based incentives, which could go up to Rs 1,400 per week in some cases.

In the filing, Zomato said, "Over the last few days we have made changes in the delivery partner payout structure with respect to the Blinkit business to address the needs of delivery partners, improve customer experience and reduce cancellation/order rejection frauds by few delivery partners in the system. Such changes are done from time to time, as needed."

It, however, did not mention by how much the payouts to the delivery partners have been reduced.

On the financial impact of the situation at Blinkit, "These disruptions and changes have no material impact on the operations/financial performance of the company (meaningfully less than 1 per cent revenue impact)."