People working with Taiwan’s major food delivery platforms on Tuesday pledged to form a union to demand fair pay and called for legislative action.
At a news conference outside the Ministry of Labor building in Taipei, organizers called on people who work with Foodpanda Taiwan Co (富胖達) and Uber Eats Taiwan to sign up for the proposed National Delivery Industrial Union.
The main purpose of the union is to increase delivery drivers’ leverage in negotiating for fair pay rules with the two platforms, said Su Po-hao (蘇柏豪), the group’s spokesman.
Photo: CNA
Last month, Foodpanda introduced new pay rules, citing better compensation for drivers who dispatch orders with pickups far from their destinations the main reason, said Chen Yu-an (陳昱安), another group member.
A few weeks later, Uber Eats did the same, saying that the new rules would encourage drivers to take orders during peak times, Chen said.
However, service fees were reduced, Su said.
Drivers for Foodpanda in Taichung, as well as Changhua and Nantou counties, faced a pay decrease of 10 to 30 percent last month, while Uber Eats deliverers in Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung saw similar drops, he said.
Drivers usually have no idea how the platforms gauge their service fees, Chen said.
After updating the rules this month, Uber Eats no longer reveals the makeup of a driver’s service fee for each order, he said.
The union would also seek to lobby the ministry and lawmakers to propose legislation for food deliveries and protect drivers’ rights, they said.
The number of food deliverers in Taiwan had increased to 88,000 as of the end of last year, ministry data showed.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS