Zomato: No material impact from Blinkit workers' strike, stores resume operation

Zomato said on Wednesday that the disruptions caused due to the Blinkit gig workers' strike has had no material impact on its operations and financial performance. It added that most stores of its grocery unit have resumed operations.

"These disruptions and changes have no material impact on the operations and financial performance of the Company (meaningfully less than 1% revenue impact) and hence we believe that this event does not warrant any disclosure under regulation 30 of the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015," the company claimed.

Zomato also issued a statement that recent changes to its delivery partners' payout structures were made to "improve customer experience and reduce cancellation/order rejection frauds by a few delivery partners in the system. Such changes are done from time to time, as needed".

“We had to shut down some stores for a few days to ensure [the] safety of our employees at stores and the delivery partners. Most of these stores have now resumed operations," the company said in its filing.

Protesting workers said that they joined Blinkit last year when the fee was Rs 50 per order. However, it was reduced to Rs 25 per order last year, and has now been reduced further to Rs 15, with a distance-based fee component being introduced.

The Indian Express, in its report on the Blinkit strike has said, "These fresh protests mark a new flashpoint in the rising conflict between workers and the firms, after years of brimming discontent. As companies and lawmakers have romanticised the concept of firms offering 'gig' work to people becoming an attractive avenue for employment, workers at these firms have been, for long, silently fighting many battles."

The Times of India on Tuesday reported that several of Blinkit's dark stores were closed down by the company in the Delhi NCR region. According to the report, this was the backdrop of the delivery executives' strike.