The Ministry of Labor should implement fixed standards on reasonable minimum fast-food takeout service times, a civic group said yesterday, adding that unreasonable employer requirements have led to widespread traffic accidents.
“Because of accidents, most fast-food operators have stopped advertising fixed arrival periods, but they’ve just become internal company rules,” Taiwan Alliance for the Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare secretary-general Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said, adding that competitive pressure and consumer expectations would ensure the rules continue unless the ministry steps in.
Fixed arrival periods refer to promises that customers will receive their orders within a fixed period of time.
Yeh said that statistics from the ministry showed that most workers younger than 20 involved in traffic accidents were employed by restaurants and drink stalls.
She attributed the higher accident rates to the time pressures faced by delivery personnel.
“If they are just requiring that the order arrive within a reasonable distance within an hour, that is not a huge problem, but we are opposed to requiring a fixed rule that they have to arrive within 30, 15 or 10 minutes, because that is just not reasonable,” she said.
“The reality is that the law already has this kind of rule,” said Lin Yu-tang (林毓堂), a division head at the ministry’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) states that employers are responsible for taking measures to prevent injuries on the job.
The agency has only received one report of serious injury among employees of restaurants and drink stalls over the past three years, Lin said, adding that some employers might have neglected to file reports.
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