Up to 80 percent of those working as food deliverers worry that they will get into a traffic accident while making deliveries, a survey released yesterday by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) and the Taiwan Labor Front found.
“Many people are engaged in the gig economy, which has created new job opportunities, but these companies must not take advantage of legal loopholes to shift burdens onto the laborers, such as work environment hazards and the cost of labor insurance,” Fan said.
“We have witnessed recurring tragedies: road accidents involving delivery riders followed by disputes over compensation and medical bills,” she said, citing that over a two-month period, delivery riders in Taipei were involved in more than 200 traffic accidents, resulting in one death and 202 people injured.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The survey, which was conducted from July to September, received valid responses from 126 delivery riders working for Foodpanda, Uber Eats and similar companies, Taiwan Labor Front representatives said.
The results showed that 81.7 percent of respondents were most concerned about getting into a traffic accident, followed by restaurants and eateries taking too long to prepare meals (79.3 percent), inability to contact the person who placed the order (62.6 percent), difficult customers (50 percent), and getting lost or not being able to find an address (42.8 percent).
Eighty-three percent of respondents were men and most were aged 31 to 35 (26 percent), followed by those aged 36 to 40 (23 percent) and 26 to 30 (20 percent).
Forty percent of respondents worked part-time as food deliverers and 42 percent worked full-time, while 18 percent were high-school students.
Among the full-time delivery riders, 68 percent had no labor insurance, while 32 percent had coverage through a workers’ union. Sixty-eight percent of the part-time food deliverers had labor insurance through their other job, while 18 percent had no labor insurance and 10 percent had coverage through a workers’ union.
The results showed that 24 percent of respondents worked more than 50 hours per week, while 44 percent had worked more than 12 hours in a single day.
Most of the respondents earned less than NT$5,000 per week (35 percent), followed by those earning NT$5,000 to NT$7,500 per week (28 percent), NT$7,500 to NT$10,000 (18 percent), NT$10,000 to NT$12,500 (7 percent), NT$12,500 to NT$15,000 (5 percent) and more than NT$20,000 (5 percent).
Fan and the Taiwan Labor Front representatives called on the Ministry of Labor to conduct a study of the working conditions of food deliverers, including assessments of their work safety and the development of mechanisms for their protection.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS