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, Marin

E9: A Test of Employment

Dec 23rd, 2023 53m 25s

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

E8: Against the Dying of the Light

Dec 5th, 2023 1h 37m

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 th

E7: Law’s embrace

Sep 19th, 2023 1h 21m

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 con

E6: Workers and Voters

Sep 3rd, 2023 1h 12m

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 ord

E5: A Normal Working Day

Jun 28th, 2023 1h 40m

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 stab

E4: Delivery Workers v. The Ghost of Hans Carl Nipperdey

May 12th, 2023 2h 16m

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

E3: (For)getir about Co-determination

Apr 18th, 2023 1h 43m

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 a

E2: Flink Twice if you Want to Form a Works Council

Apr 3rd, 2023 1h 29m

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 a

E1: Form a Works Council in these Six Easy Steps

Mar 2nd, 2023 1h 31m

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

Trailer: Delivery Charge

Feb 23rd, 2023 12m 34s

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

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