Overview
- Unions had planned an indefinite strike starting August 8 to press the state to fix minimum base, per-kilometre and per-minute fares for app-based cab, auto and delivery workers.
- Organisers point to a July 22 flash strike that drew roughly 390,000 participants as leverage for the action and to highlight falling take-home pay caused by higher fuel costs and lower mileage since the E20 rollout.
- The Telangana Labour Department held emergency conciliation talks with major platforms including Ola, Uber, Rapido, Swiggy and Zomato and met the unions with Labour Minister Gaddam Vivek Venkataswamy, who gave assurances to act.
- Following those assurances, unions agreed on August 8 to defer the strike by 10 days while they wait for timebound, concrete steps such as notification of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Rules and constitution of a welfare board.
- Unions also demand enforcement of the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines to stop white-plate private vehicles operating commercially, and they say failure to secure binding government action could renew the threat of large-scale work stoppages that would disrupt passenger and delivery services across Telangana.