BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Users should rethink using a delivery service reported to have suspended riders for participating in a protest against lower earnings, public policy think tank InfrawatchPH said.
In a statement, convenor Terry Ridon said tech delivery platforms "should do better than treat their riders with indignity and contempt," referring to the ten-year suspension that delivery service Foodpanda imposed on its supposedly freelance riders.
"As a platform business, Foodpanda's success is dependent on its users: food vendors, riders and customers. We are encouraging its users to migrate to other platforms that can provide better beneficial relationships, most particularly to its riders, whose daily subsistence incomes are dependent on every transaction," he also said.
As first reported by Davao Today, the food delivery app suspended some of its drivers for ten years for planning and joining a protest over significantly reduced pay. Under the country's labor code, a suspension of an employee may not exceed 30 days.
According to a report by the Inquirer, the suspensions on some of the riders were lifted "through a whistleblower program, which offered the suspended riders their jobs back in return for information about the protest."
The labor department has set a dialogue between Foodpanda and its delivery riders later this month. The company has meanwhile acknowledged that it "offboarded" over the protest, which it said called for a "disruption that may affect the wider ecosystem" of its riders, vendors and customers."
It also said that its pay structure factors in route and distance, which it said "[allows] for a fair pay structure that is higher than other industries." It said riders also get benefits like discounts through partnerships.
Ridon said that "if the riders were truly independent contractors, why can they not opt out of providing service to food delivery apps?"