Swiggy, India’s second-largest food delivery app, has faced criticism for its incentive-based health insurance structure for delivery agents. This structure categorises workers into gold, silver, and bronze tiers. According to a report by Rest of World, gold-rated workers receive health insurance for themselves and their families. Silver-rated workers are ineligible for family insurance, while bronze-rated workers are only eligible for insurance coverage in case of accidents.
Introduced in 2023, this system ranks delivery riders based on a point system, where a “perfect order” earns one point. Maintaining a gold status requires earning 70 points or more weekly, while falling below 50 points moves a rider to the bronze category. Despite Swiggy’s defense that all delivery partners receive basic insurance benefits such as accidental coverage and free ambulance services, many riders find the system unpredictable and are considering purchasing their insurance independently.
Why are gig work-based platforms not providing a blanket General Health Insurance—at least to individuals if not for families?
Swiggy’s stance on health insurance for its delivery agents exemplifies the broader challenges faced by workers in the gig economy. The company’s dynamic rating system, linking insurance benefits to performance metrics, introduces significant uncertainties and risks for its workforce. This system, while ostensibly offering benefits based on engagement levels, can penalize workers for situations beyond their control, such as personal emergencies or unforeseen circumstances. The gamification of gig work, as seen in Swiggy’s dynamic insurance plan, can lead to dystopian outcomes. By turning essential benefits into rewards and tying them to performance metrics, companies create a competitive environment that can push workers to their limits or actually make it miserable for them by not giving them the insurance when they need it the most. This approach can lead to overwork, stress, and even health issues, as workers strive to maintain their ratings and secure their benefits.
While Swiggy emphasises that all delivery partners receive some level of insurance coverage, the reality is that this coverage is tied to maintaining a high rating, which can be challenging in a job with unpredictable variables like traffic, customer moods, or health issues. The only insurance they get, irrespective of these variables, is the Swiggy Accident-related insurance. According to a 2022 post from Swiggy on its blog, this accident insurance seems to be active when the worker is delivering something on the platform. While it is normal for an employer to give its employee accidental insurance when the employee is always on the move, given that Swiggy is a gig work platform, it seems to have settled for the bare minimum expected of it.
The gig economy, by its nature, promotes flexibility and independence, but these benefits often come at the expense of workers’ rights and protections. Companies like Swiggy leverage this flexibility to implement performance-based incentives that may inadvertently contribute to a culture of overwork and stress among their workforces.
This system operates under a veil of flexibility and independence, but it obscures the inherent instability and insecurity faced by gig workers. The false promise of flexibility often masks the precarious nature of gig work, where workers are subject to the whims of algorithms and customer ratings.
Moreover, the opaqueness of these systems further exacerbates the problem. Policies and rating systems are often not transparent, leaving workers in the dark about the rules that govern their work and their livelihoods. This lack of transparency can lead to feelings of powerlessness and frustration among workers. For example, Swiggy, in its communique, states that since the workforce on Swiggy varies day by day, where some people disappear from being on the platform for weeks, it becomes difficult to give insurance. However, no one except Swiggy knows what percentage of Swiggy delivery fleet have not logged in for weeks, and who have been working on the platform for a while and have taken a break for a week. This opacity allows
What can the governments do?
Governments can take up the issue with platforms and nudge them to give better health insurance benefits rather than just accident insurance which is the bare minimum.
Rajasthan and Karnataka have become pioneers in providing social security and insurance benefits to gig workers. The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill 2023, recently passed by the Rajasthan Assembly, establishes a welfare board and a social security fund for gig workers. A tax on digital platform transactions will fund these schemes, providing benefits like accident insurance, health coverage, maternity benefits, pension contributions, and scholarships.
Similarly, Karnataka announced free life and accidental insurance worth Rs 4 lakh for gig workers, covering employees in e-commerce companies like Swiggy and Zomato. These initiatives mark a significant step towards protecting and supporting gig workers who were previously lacking adequate social security and regulatory frameworks.
This is not a national phenomenon, and Karnataka and Rajasthan cover a very small part of the total gig worker ecosystem. The situation in the gig economy calls for urgent attention and action. As the gig economy continues to grow, it is imperative that governments, companies, and society at large work together to ensure a more sustainable and equitable future for all workers. This includes providing adequate support and protection to workers, promoting transparency in policies, and ensuring that the benefits of the gig economy are accrued to whoever runs the platforms and the workers suffer because no one stood for them. And finally, it is important to reorganize collective thinking about the status of gig work in the country—especially with respect to ride-hailing, food delivery, and home services app. The non-existence of managers and flexibility to work when workers want should not take away the fact that there is significant control of the platform on the worker. As India moves towards fixed-term employments—which are gig works but for more than a few weeks/months—it becomes important to think whether we want the uncertainty of gig work to creep into the organized sector or for the greater certainty and social security of the organized sector to move into the gig economy.
(The author is part of the organisation’s legal research team)
Related:
Rajasthan’s Gig Worker Law, a step towards industrial democracy
Karnataka Budget 2023-24: CM announces Rs. 4 lakh life & accident insurance policy for gig workers
Report Highlights Poor Working Conditions for Gig Workers; Uber, Ola, Amazon Score Zero