Hyderabad: The indefinite strike planned by gig and platform workers across Telangana from August 8 has been called off for now, after the state government assured unions it would act on their long-pending demands within the next 10 days.
The decision came after two rounds of talks on Friday, August 7. In the first, a joint conciliation meeting convened by the Joint Commissioner of Labour, Rangareddy Zone, brought together representatives of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU), the Telangana App-Based Drivers Forum (TADF), platform companies and government officials. Transport Department officials reportedly sought more time to work out how the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025 would be implemented.
In the second meeting, Labour Minister Gaddam Vivek Venkatswamy assured the union delegation that the government would coordinate between the Labour and Transport Departments and take the pending issues to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for a decision. The minister also said the government would expedite notification of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Rules and set up a Welfare Board.
The unions had been pushing for a fair minimum base fare and clear per-kilometre and per-minute rates, along with a crackdown on the use of privately registered two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers for commercial rides and deliveries on platforms such as Ola, Uber and Rapido, or their mandatory conversion to commercial registration. They also sought effective enforcement of welfare and regulatory protections for gig and platform workers.
Following the assurances, TGPWU, TADF and the other participating trade unions decided to hold off on the strike for 10 days. The unions said they hoped the government would show concrete movement in that window, and warned that they would decide their next course of action after consulting workers across the state if there was no meaningful progress.
The talks were attended by TGPWU founder president Shaik Salauddin along with Ajay Babu, Ramakrishna Reddy, Abdul Rawoof, Ch. Swamy, Nagesh, Sirajuddin and P. Satish Kumar, as well as leaders of CITU, INTUC-F, ILWF, TMCDA, TGFWDA, IFAT and other trade unions.
The strike threat had followed a flash strike on July 22, in which the TGPWU said more than 3.9 lakh workers took part, and an emergency conciliation meeting the government called on Thursday with major platform companies including Ola, Uber, Rapido, Porter, Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto and Blinkit.
