Major food delivery and quick commerce platforms in India are implementing enhanced financial incentives for their delivery partners on New Year's Eve. This move comes even as gig worker unions have called for a nationwide strike on December 31, 2025, potentially disrupting services during one of the year's busiest nights.
Platforms Announce Festive Incentives to Ensure Operations
In a bid to maintain service continuity, Zomato and Swiggy have rolled out special payout structures for the festive period. Zomato is offering its delivery partners between ₹120 and ₹150 per order during the peak evening hours of 6 PM to 12 AM on December 31. The company has stated that partners could potentially earn up to ₹3,000 throughout the day, depending on order volume. Additionally, penalties for order denials and cancellations have been temporarily suspended.
An Eternal spokesperson, the parent company of Zomato and Blinkit, explained that this is part of their standard annual protocol for high-demand festive periods, which naturally present increased earning opportunities.
Not to be outdone, rival platform Swiggy has also ramped up its incentives. Swiggy is advertising potential peak-hour earnings of up to ₹2,000 for the same six-hour window on New Year's Eve. Furthermore, the platform is promoting that delivery workers could earn up to ₹10,000 cumulatively across December 31 and January 1. A Swiggy spokesperson reiterated that offering enhanced incentives during special occasions is a standard practice to allow partners to benefit from surge demand.
Unions Proceed with Strike Despite Incentives
However, these increased payouts have not deterred worker unions from proceeding with their planned industrial action. The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) and the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) have organized the strike, demanding systemic improvements rather than temporary bonuses.
Their key demands include:
- Better and more consistent payouts
- Improved working conditions
- Enhanced safety measures for delivery personnel
In a joint statement, TGPWU claimed that over 1.7 lakh delivery and app-based workers across India had confirmed participation in the strike as of December 30, with numbers expected to rise further. The Gig and Platform Service Workers Union has also supported the shutdown, urging workers to log off all work-related apps for the day.
Potential Impact and Background of the Dispute
The strike is anticipated to impact operations across several major platforms, including Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Instamart, and Zepto. The disruption is likely to be most acute during the late evening hours when demand for food delivery and quick commerce typically surges on New Year's Eve.
Union leaders have framed this action as a necessary escalation. They point to a large-scale walkout that already occurred on December 25, 2025, where thousands of delivery workers logged off platforms across Telangana and other regions. The unions stated that the previous action was a warning to companies about falling earnings, unsafe delivery pressures, and a loss of dignity at work. They allege that a continued lack of meaningful dialogue and concrete assurances from the platform companies has made this latest strike unavoidable.
Industry sources indicate that the incentives announced by the platforms are primarily aimed at minimizing service disruption during this critical business period, highlighting the tension between operational demands and worker grievances in India's growing gig economy.
