Food delivery riders are employees, not freelancers

A surge of labor disputes and workplace grievances among food delivery riders is erupting amid their increased significance and profile during the pandemic. The latest is the protest of some 300 Foodpanda riders in Davao over decreased pay. In response to this, Foodpanda suspended 43 riders for 10 years from accessing the app. Prior to this, 700 Foodpanda riders from Metro Manila and nearby areas held a unity ride that ended at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) main office. This led to a dialogue between DOLE officials and riders about their grievances over the lack of transparency in app policies affecting pay and safety.

Last week, DOLE released a labor advisory on food delivery and courier work. Yet the department is engaged in smoke and mirrors. It pretends to do something in the face of platform work disputes when it actually is not resolving anything by issuing a useless advisory. The department avers in the advisory that food delivery riders are protected by labor law or their contracts. On the contrary, the advisory affirms what presently exists—that the majority if not almost all food delivery riders are considered independent contractors and thus are at the mercy of opaque platform algorithms.

We ask that DOLE immediately implement its commitment to convene a technical working group represented by rider’s groups, trade unions, worker’s organizations, and concerned government agencies to start the research and investigation that would lead to the creation of policy standards to protect gig workers. This commitment was the result of the pre-Labor Day summits called by DOLE as part of drafting the National Employment Recovery Strategy.

A global study found that food delivery riders launched the greatest number of protests among platform workers. The most prominent grievance concerned pay, although employment status also figured as a secondary issue. In Spain and Italy, courts have decided that food delivery riders are employees, not freelancers.

The DOLE cannot skirt the issue of riders’ employment status. Kagulong maintains that applying the “control test” to the working conditions of food delivery riders would reveal the existence of an employee-employer relationship. Apps do control the means and methods of how riders conduct their delivery. Though riders work in the field, the platforms are able to surveil how they do deliveries. Apps fix the price of delivery and the pay of riders. Riders are even required to wear uniforms and use bags emblazoned with the apps’ distinctive logos and colors.

If riders are truly freelancers, then they have the choice not to make deliveries. But the fact that Foodpanda suspended the Davao riders for planning to take three “rest days” exposes the reality that the app wants to have its cake and eat it, too.

Don Pangan, secretary-general, Kapatiran ng Dalawang Gulong, donpangan@gmail.com