Gig workers set August 8 strike
Organisers say autos, cabs, lorries and app deliveries will stop statewide from Saturday. The ask is basic: minimum fares, notified rules, and the welfare board the draft bill promised on paper.
Gig workers’ demands remain on paper as the August 8 strike call approaches.
News | Public Services
A joint action committee of transport and app-based delivery workers announced an indefinite strike in Telangana from August 8, saying autos, cabs, lorries and app deliveries would be halted across the state. The announcement followed a meeting in Hyderabad on August 6; organisers named groups including the Telangana App-Based Drivers Forum, the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union and allied unions. The committee says 16 organisations are on board; a full list was not published. (According to the organisers, a July 22 flash strike preceded this and they had warned of an escalation after August 8.)
Their demands are specific and long-pending: notify minimum base fares and fair per‑km/per‑minute charges, constitute a welfare board for gig and platform workers, notify Telangana’s gig-worker rules, enforce the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025, and stop non‑commercial vehicles from being used on apps. These are union demands, not current government orders. The welfare‑board idea does exist in the state’s own draft Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Bill, 2025, which proposes a Board to deliver social security — on paper until notified.
What’s not verified yet: the actual scale of shutdown on August 8, the full roster of the claimed 16 organisations, and whether every listed service will stop in every district. No public response from the Telangana government or the platforms was on record in the material reviewed. The strike call is on the table; whether Congress in Telangana engages with the demands it once said it recognised, beyond the draft, is the part that decides if commuters and couriers pay the price for the silence.