Resisting the Worker’s Resistance: Insights from Food Delivery Platforms in Trivandrum, India

K, Mohammed Anfas

The emergence of gig platforms globally over the past few decades has inspired various debates on the transformation of labour processes within contemporary capitalist production systems. These platforms are characterised by streamlined work processes, independent contractor provisions, algorithmic management, and decentred point of production, which collectively challenge conventional understandings of the labour process. However, the pace and nature of changes across different regions differ, especially in the global south. The prevalent informal labour market and youth unemployment in India provides an interesting context for exploring the dynamics of the labour process shaped by gig platforms in the global south.

This study is part of ongoing doctoral research on understanding the evolving labour process in gig platforms in India. This particular part of the research focuses on the individual and collective resistance of food delivery workers and counter strategies of food delivery platforms to resist the resistance of workers. Moreover, the study uses the labour process theory (LPT) framework to understand the implications of worker’s resistance and counter strategies of gig platforms on the shaping of the labour process in gig platforms.

This study utilised the insights derived from the semi-structured interviews of 30 food delivery workers in Trivandrum, a two-tier city in India. The findings from the study suggest that the scope for both individual and collective resistance in gig platforms is restricted by the platforms using various strategies like cultivating a notion of self-employee among the workforce, digitalizing the formal grievance redressal mechanisms, and discouraging the collective resistance by recruiting segmented workforce, incentivising workers to work on the day of strike, and deactivating the account of leaders of the strike. These strategies employed by food delivery platforms not only curtailed opportunities for worker resistance but also transformed union activities and class consciousness within the workforce.