Manila solon’s tirades vs Grab Philippines–an eyeopener

Metro Manila Development Committee Chairman and Manila 2nd District Rep. Rolando M. Valeriano issued a warning against what he branded as “wanton business decisions” of Grab Philippines. He aired his grave concern after one thousand GRAB employees in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand , Vietnam and here in Philippines will be laid off.

Valeriano further said, “In a position they submitted to Congress and in a letter to the Department of Transportation, GRAB Philippines boasted of its commitment to provide livelihood to thousands of Filipinos, but a few months thereafter, is now announcing a mass lay off?”

“What is frustrating to us in Congress is the fact that Grab, in many ways snubbed our efforts to clarify details or the reasons behind some of its actions under the cloak of it being a US publicly listed company,” the solon said. “Just imagine, in our past hearings, grab representatives were reluctant to attend and when they finally sent their legal team, they evaded the lines of questioning, saying that the lawyers were not privy to operations.”

Valeriano said a Congressional Committee is already looking into other possible errors Grab did in price surging as sole TNVS player, as well as acquiring MOVE IT, a motorcycle taxi fleet. He also disclosed that their committee is looking at other possible violations such as creative charging in its digital platform with hosts of other businesses, including some form of “banking” via e-wallet, money transfer, payment, through Grab Pay. The Manila solon also noted that the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has already penalized Grab for a couple of times.

On the other hand, GRAB Philippines clarified that its recent regional restructuring across its markets in Southeast Asia, has no impact on its commitment to the Philippine government, that is, to provide livelihood opportunities to 500,000 Filipinos.
Without mentioning the actual numbers of affected employees here, Vera Cruz says, “The restructuring exercise neither changes our investment commitment to the government, nor does it affect our ability to ably serve Filipinos. We are accelerating our efforts to ensure that this will come to fruition, as we unlock further economic empowerment through our robust ecosystem,”.

“The Philippines has always been an important market for Grab. We remain steadfast in our promise to create 500,000 livelihood opportunities in the Philippines and will continue to make progress by creating meaningful opportunities for everyday Filipinos and small businesses to earn a livelihood on our platform, whether as driver-partner, delivery partner, or merchant partner. Grab is committed to equipping them with tools, training, and technology to be more productive,”

Grab will adequately provide financial, professional, and medical support to affected employees. These include half-month severance payment for every six months of completed service, or based on local statutory guidelines, whichever is higher, as well as goodwill payment of an ex-gratia amount determined by Grab for forgone target bonus and equity.

Grabbers will be able to encash unused accrued annual leave, Grab Flex credits, and maternity or paternity leaves. They will get a completion bonus for and an option to keep their pre-assigned laptops. Grab has also extended their medical insurance coverage until the end of this year, where possible, subject to local insurance terms.

From my view, I see these GRAB adjustments as part of the world’s changing tech market dynamics, a digital transformation sparked and accelerated by the pandemic. I’m talking here of the central role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) today on all global tech companies. I am sure that companies are now reassessing their operational structures, workforce requirements, skill sets to reskill and upskill their people. They will tighten their belts and look for more sustainable business models in the face of increased capital costs and generative AI.

Clearly, markets today are grappling with this double-edged sword of digital innovation: greater efficiency thru AI against potential separation of loyal employees. Recently, Twitter owner Elon Musk started this trend by laying off its middle managers. A move admired by Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, who called it a “good” for the industry.

What will happen if popular Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, becomes mainstream? Thousands of people will lose their jobs, examples are encoding, phone operators, call center employees, pricing information, writers, secretaries, assistants, teachers, and songwriters among others.
These coming job losses and how it will affect Filipino families are questions government officials like Rep. Valeriano, the Department of Labor and Employment, and the private companies should answer. Artificial Intelligence is here, all of us must prepare.