Foundation seeks insurance, benefits
The building blocks for Consumers’ Rights Protection has advised the Labour Ministry to issue rules to support the well being rights of food delivery drivers, to give them with insurance against the risk of road accidents.
Narumon Mekborisut, head of the foundation, last night said the food shipping service has noticed a rising quantity of orders placed via apps which has resulted in a substantial growth in jobs for riders employed by domestic and international platforms, like Grab, Lineman plus Foodpanda.
One recent study by the foundation recommended the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the behaviour of consumers and also pushing up joblessness, with many of those that lost their careers opting for alternative work as food delivery riders.
Hundreds of thousands of this kind of riders have became a member of the sector because the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.
However , current labour protection laws and regulations do not adequately protect the rights of freelancers, according to Ms Narumon. One of the main complications has been a failure to properly define the status of food shipping riders and whether or not they should be considered as employees or business partners of their respective shipping firms.
“The world is evolving fast, but our laws are behind the times. The particular Labour Ministry ought to expedite the model of the status of riders to ensure they have rightful access to the welfare they should have, ” said Microsoft Narumon.
The foundation’s review also said discrepancies exist as bikers for different delivery platforms do not receive comparative welfare packages or similar numbers of foods delivery orders with a direct bearing on their earnings.
Also, there are no set standards pertaining to calculating pay in proportion to the distance rode for each delivery, because each platform pieces its own rates, added Ms Narumon.
In addition , system operators do not provide welfare or accident insurance with riders often forced to break traffic laws within a race against time to deliver food and receive full payment.
Ms Narumon said the foundation has urged the Labour Ministry to step in to improve the situation and enforce standard rates and benefits which are applicable across the industry. Also, the ministry must require the particular platforms to take out insurance coverage for their riders.
“This should at least ease the anxiety of foods riders and reduce the chance of road accidents by not expecting them to hurry to deliver purchases, ” she stated.
Decha Pruekphathanarak, deputy-director of the Labour Protection plus Welfare Department, provides previously claimed the bill on informal labour approved by the cabinet last Dec will solve several concerns.
It is currently being vetted by the Council of State, the government’s legal arm, and can later be posted to parliament.