Swiggy Announces 2-Day Paid Monthly Period Leave To Female Delivery Partners | Equal Pay Without Equal Work?

In a statement on October 20, online food delivery chain Swiggy has announced paid monthly period leave to its regular delivery partners. The note read:

Discomfort from being out and about on the road while menstruating is probably one of the most underreported reasons why many women don’t consider delivery to be a viable gig.  

To support them through any menstruation related challenges, we’ve introduced a no-questions-asked, two-day paid monthly period time-off policy for all our regular female delivery partners.

How Will This Work?

As many as 99% of the female delivery partners on Swiggy are below 45 years old and 89% of them have at least one child. It has around 1000 women delivery partners however it did not mention how many of them are counted as regular on the platform.

The delivery partners can voluntarily take time-off and be eligible for a minimum earnings guarantee during that time.

Sometime ago Swiggy’s business rival Zomato too offered period leave for employees and not for gig workers.

Cut Off Time For Female Delivery Partners

Earlier Swiggy had capped delivery hours at 6 PM for female delivery partners citing safety concerns. The company later revised the same and said,

However, we realized that this move limited true inclusivity, while also restricting female partners from delivering during one of the most lucrative slots – the dinner peak. We’re changing that by bettering our security processes.

These moves come at a time when there is more scrutiny on the rights of gig workers in India.

To ensure safety Swiggy also said partners- men and women, will be allowed the flexibility to decline an order they thought the area was unsafe.

Statement By Swiggy

Mihir Shah, vice president for operations at Swiggy, in a blog post wrote,

Other initiatives include enabling access to vehicles, access to hygienic restrooms, implementing safety measures for female delivery partners. Discomfort from being out and about on the road while menstruating is probably one of the most underreported reasons why many women don’t consider delivery to be a viable gig.

To support them through any menstruation-related challenges, we’ve introduced a no-questions-asked, two-day paid monthly period time-off policy for all our regular female delivery partners. This industry-first initiative gives our female DEs the option to voluntarily take time-off during their menstrual cycle and be eligible for a minimum earnings guarantee during that time.

MDO Take:

• There should be similar perks and concern for every single employee of a company and the same should not be discriminated on the basis of Gender
• On one hand, women want to join the defense forces, on other hand new age promoters are allegedly using Female centric schemes as tools of PR, Marketing and scoring brownie points
• How does this impact their male delivery partners? 
• What happens to equal pay and equality at work?
• Its time companies have balanced approach and not try to score over the other – merely for some social media likes and claps

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