GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 16 Aug) – Delivery riders here from various platforms and companies have banded together to stop what they call widespread exploitation and abuse by their supposed employers who consider them freelance workers instead of employees.
Close to 300 riders in this city have signed up to be the initial members of the United Delivery RIDERS of the Philippines (RIDERS), a nationwide union organization of delivery riders from different digital companies.
There are over one thousand delivery riders – around 400 Foodpanda, 400 Grab and 280 Maxim – serving this city and nearby towns who are not considered employees by their employers, thus lack the necessary insurance, health care and other benefits that regular employees enjoy.
RIDERS is being organized first in this city, where there exist a growing problem of “slave-like working conditions of delivery riders by their employers,” said Herbert Demos, Soccsksargen coordinator of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO).
RIDERS is backed by SENTRO and the International Union of Food (IUF). Its members joined a unity parade on Monday to launch RIDERS as a nationwide union group in this city.
Several riders, however, said they did not join because they have no problem with their companies.
A RIDERS member said they can now better protect their rights which are often violated through illegal off-boarding, illegal termination, and suspension without due process by their online companies.
The suspensions, which are done arbitrarily by their companies, can run from three months to 10 years or even lifetime, Demos said.
As such, Demos said there is a felt need to organize the riders into a union with the pressing issues they are facing. “They are even made to pay for cancelled orders or those made by scammers,” he said.
On July 11, riders in this city skipped work as their silent protest on the seeming continued neglect by authorities of their miserable plight. They are vulnerable to exploitation, which has been happening to many of them already, Demos said.
“Akala yata ng marami maganda ang nangyayari sa amin. Malaki nga kita, pero kabaligtaran ang lahat,” said a rider who asked not to be named.
Demos said they expect more riders to join the union, confronted with the realities they are in. Membership is open to delivery personnel of other platforms or companies, he said.
Without an organization to support them, many riders choose to be silent on these prejudices for fear of losing their source of income, he said.
On June 30, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) in the Davao Region found Foodpanda Philippines Inc. guilty of terminating in July 2021 the employment of seven workers. Some of them were suspended for 10 years.
Labor arbiter Rovyne Jumao-as, of NLRC’s Regional Arbitration Branch in Davao, directed Foodpanda to pay the workers, from P234,000 to P368,000 each, or a total of P2.24 million for illegal dismissal.
The amount covers the full back wages, including the 13th-month pay, service incentive leave, and separation pay instead of the reinstatement of Edmund Carrillo, Francis Ghlenn Costan, Nerjhun Claramon, Manuel Lapiña, Roberto Gonzaga, Jeffrey Cabusas, and Nawar Solaiman.
Carrillo, president of Davao United Delivery Riders Association Inc., called the NLRC decision a vindication even as they expect that the company will appeal the decision with the High Tribunal. (Rommel G. Rebollido / MindaNews)
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