Blinkit Temporarily Unavailable after delivery partners go on strike over new pay structure

Zomato owned instant commerce platform Blinkit last year in june. The delivery firm has recently introduced its new payout structure that caused the protests from its delivery partners in several parts of the National Capital Region (NCR). Around 2,500 delivery workers of Blinkit have been on a strike since last week in Gurugram, after the new pay structure announced that reduced the fixed payouts. More workers are striking against this move in Delhi and Noida.

What is new pay-structure that sparkled strike:

Zomato has introduced few changes in the pay structure, according to the revised pay structure of Blinkit employees; its delivery executives would receive a minimum of ₹15 per delivery instead of ₹25 per delivery within 1 km. And if their travel distance exceeds 1 km, they get an additional per km earning which ranges from ₹10 to ₹14.

Around 50 stores of Blinkit are currently closed in several parts of Delhi-NCR. Many Videos on social media showed hundreds of Blinkit bike riders protesting and raising slogans against the new payment structure. they claim that the new pay structure would reduce their earnings. Zomato's other food delivery services continued normally.

Ashneer Grover, the CEO of BharatPe has highlighted the issue on Twitter. The strike has also affected over 100 dark stores. Here is what he wrote:

On Friday, taking to Twitter, BJP leader Kapil Mishra slammed the Blinkit management for doing injustice to its employees and demanded the return of the old payment structure.

When is the issue expected to be resolved:

There is no official statement given by Blinkit about when temporarily unavailable issue will be resolved. The issue has been ongoing for at least three days. The ongoing protests have caused a lot inconvenience to customers who are not able to place orders on the Blinkit app. Zomato owned Blinkit, has become temporarily unavailable after 50 of its stores were closed in different parts of NCR. There is no such information available on when the issue will be resolved.

How is Blinkit responding to the strike:

Blinkit has not given any officially statement about its decision to introduce the new pay structure. The company has stated that the new payout structure is an opt-in exercise and compensates partners based on their efforts to deliver an order.

Blinkit Cares officially tweeted on Saturday to a customer asking them about the Blinkit temporarily unavailable issue and wrote, "Hi there, please accept our sincere apologies. Your Blinkit store is undergoing maintenance. We understand the hassle this must be causing you. Our teams are working on fixing this at the earliest, and we’ll be back very soon to serve you again".