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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new