The majority of food-delivery personnel are hired as employees, rather than contractors, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said yesterday.
The ministry said that the findings of a labor inspection conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, contradicted claims by food-delivery platform operators that their workers are contractors and not employees, so they are not obligated to follow the rules in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and Labor Inspection Act (勞動檢查法).
The inspection focused on people working for Foodpanda, Lalamove, Cutaway, Quickpick, Deliveroo, Uber Eats, YoWoo Food Delivery, Foodomo and JKO Delivery, administration Director Tsou Tzu-lien (鄒子廉) said, adding that Honestbee and Foodtoall have ceased operations.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
Inspections were carried out by randomly selecting five or more delivery workers from each of the nine existing platform operators and asking them about their work relationship with their platform.
Five of the nine platforms hire their workers as employees, including Uber Eats, Lalamove, Cutaway, Quickpick and Foodpanda, the administration found.
JKO Delivery, Yo-Woo and Foodomo do not recruit workers, instead outsourcing the job to courier companies, while Deliveroo hires its workers as contractors, it found.
The inspection also found that the nation has 45,129 delivery workers, only 1,363 of which are contractors.
While five platforms hire their workers as employees, they do not follow labor regulations, such as maintaining worker record cards and workers’ attendance records, or subscribing to national labor insurance, the inspection found.
“We will hand over the collected evidence to local labor officials, who will determine the fines that platform operators should pay in view of their labor regulation infringements,” Tsou said.
Chu Chin-lung (朱金龍), an administration official who was in charge of this labor inspection, said that inspectors examined also examined records to determine the relationship between delivery workers and platform operators, including the contracts between operators and workers, delivery workers’ work schedules, how the delivery orders were given, and how workers are punished or rewarded.
They also interviewed the workers to verify the information they found, Chu said.
The business models used by food delivery platforms vary, Chu said.
Some platforms give assignments to workers directly, while others have food delivered by courier companies or other means, he said, adding that some platforms formed partnerships with cargo transport firms, but maintain a high degree of control over the delivery workers.
Using Uber Eats as an example, Chu said that it monitors workers’ whereabouts through its mobile phone application, adding that the company requires them to report to the system when a delivery is completed or interrupted.
The system also determines how many food orders a worker should deliver and how much they should be paid.
There is no room to negotiate salaries, he said.
Before attending a meeting at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said that the ministry would help delivery workers form a union, through which they could join a labor insurance plan.
The Sharing Economy Association Taiwan said that the ministry should respect workers’ decisions and avoid using outdated laws to regulate new services.
It should not look at isolated cases and use them to destroy job opportunities for 80,000 delivery workers, the association said.
“We hope that the Executive Yuan will quickly convene an inter-departmental meeting to discuss this issue,” it said.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
Chinese embassy staffers attempted to interrupt an award ceremony of an international tea competition in France when the organizer introduced Taiwan and displayed the Republic of China flag, a Taiwanese tea farmer said in an interview published today. Hsieh Chung-lin (謝忠霖), chief executive of Juxin Tea Factory from Taichung's Lishan (梨山) area, on Dec. 2 attended the Teas of the World International Contest held at the Peruvian embassy in Paris. Hsieh was awarded a special prize for his Huagang Snow Source Tea by the nonprofit Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (AVPA). During the ceremony, two Chinese embassy staffers in attendance
RSS