Zomato terminates nearly 5,000 gig workers a month: Deepinder Goyal

On raising capital, Goyal said the company never gave predictions to investors and instead spoke only about the market size and the opportunity available

Food delivery platform Zomato terminates nearly 5,000 gig workers a month due to fraud cases, while around 150,000 to 200,000 workers leave the platform voluntarily, according to Deepinder Goyal, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of parent firm Eternal.

 

In a video podcast with YouTuber Raj Shamani, Goyal said that those who leave voluntarily consider gig work as largely transient.

 

Goyal’s statement comes days after several gig workers operating on quick commerce and food delivery platforms, including Zomato, went on strike during New Year’s Eve, citing unfavourable working conditions. Gig worker unions raised concerns like lack of social security and inadequate wages. The Zomato founder had countered these claims saying, “The company provides insurance in case a gig worker dies in an accident and also extends job offers to families.” He added that if a person works on the platform for 8-10 hours for six days a week, the person can easily earn upwards of ₹25,000.

 

 

In addition to cases of fraud by gig workers, Goyal mentioned that customers also commit frauds in some cases. To tackle this, the company had created a ‘Karma’ system which internally rates both customers and gig workers. Whenever there are complaints, the company looks at the credibility of both the customer and the workers, via its rating metric, to provide a resolution. However, the CEO noted that it’s the company that takes the hit 50-70 per cent of the time.

 

On raising capital, Goyal said that the company never gave predictions to investors, instead only spoke about market size and opportunity available.