Delivery Charge

By 2023, a large portion of Berlin’s platform delivery workers were, like the protagonists of this episode Shivani, Mohammed, and Abhay, international students from South Asia. Abhay grew up in Punjab in northern India and in 2019, was managing junior engineers at a prestigious irrigation project. Shivani, also from Punjab, was selling housing loans for a bank and Mohammed was a trained chemical e...

For the last episode of this season of the Delivery Charge podcast, host and producer Aju John is interviewed by some of its friends and supporters: the cultural anthropologist Jagat Sohail, and the doctoral researchers Joanna Bronowicka, Marini Thorne, Nicolas Palacios, and Sneha P. These interviews cover many of the themes that emerged in the previous nine episodes. Those episodes featured my in...

Generally speaking, in industrial or workplace disputes, the strike is a weapon of last resort and is used by workers to persuade the employer to accept their demands. On July 21, 2022, when a group of delivery workers stopped work in Bangalore, like some other gig work protests and strikes that we have observed in previous episodes of this podcast, the strike was not the weapon of last resort but...

In 2021, a year during which large parts of India had been under lockdown, Albinder Dhindsa wanted his company Blinkit to provide “instant commerce indistinguishable from magic”. A few months later, the delivery workers that were integral to the magic in Delhi-NCR were protesting their new rates and refusing to work. In 2021, Urban Company, which wanted to provide standardised home-based services...

The work of driving cars for Uber is not like the work of delivering food on Swiggy or the work of delivering groceries on Dunzo. A provider of beauty services on Urban Company does not do the same work as someone servicing or repairing air conditioners on the same app. They work at different locations, the tools of their work are different, and their work processes are managed differently. In Jul...

Two events happened in southern India during the first week of May this year (2023). The first was the tragic death of a delivery worker in Hyderabad. Raju, who delivered for Swiggy, was killed in an accident while on his way to complete an order. His friends and colleagues tried to request the management of the food delivery platform company for some assistance for his family, but to no avail. Th...

Previous episodes of this podcast have covered the worker-led campaigns to establish works councils or Betriebsrats at Gorillas, Getir, Flink, and Lieferando. For the "rider" activists, the Betriebsverfassungsgesetz was a device that could stabilise their lives. With the establishment of a Betriebsrat (works council), they hoped to get paid for their activism and for helping other workers and also...

At 11 am on April 25, 2023, Duygu Kaya's appeal against a decision of Berlin’s labour court was to be heard by the Appellate Labour Court for Berlin and Brandenburg. An hour before that, outside the court building, Duygu addressed a group that included some from the media, some representatives of German unions, and several current and former platform delivery workers. Duygu, along with Fernando an...

Workers are represented in Germany by trade unions and by their elected representatives in works councils. The works council (or "Betriebsrat" in German) is a key institution under German labour law, of which mitbestimmung or co-determination at the level of the workplace, is a defining principle. In the Delivery Charge podcast, host Aju John explores how platform delivery workers are organising f...

Generally, the enforcement of legal labour standards such as the maximum limits on working time, the minimum limits on wages, and the minimum health and safety conditions at the workplace, is the job of the state. Systems of labour inspection and labour courts in their turn however, rely on the vigilance and courage of workers.   In the Delivery Charge podcast, host Aju John explores how platform...

The works council (also known as the Betriebsrat) is a key institution under German labour law and illustrates the aspect of mitbestimmung or co-determination at the level of the workplace. Broadly speaking, workers, through this body directly elected by and composed of those working in the company, have rights to participate in the management of the companies they work for.  In the Delivery Charg...

Does the experience of platform delivery workers mobilising to establish works councils at their companies in Germany give us a new way of looking at how unions are working among the platform delivery workers in India? Does the role of strikes and work stoppages by delivery workers in India give us a new way of looking at how delivery workers are organising in Germany? Apart from featuring intervi...