TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Workers have called on the government to create a law that protects delivery drivers and businesses after UberEats announced plans to acquire Foodpanda in May.
Protesting food delivery drivers gathered outside the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday (May 29) to call on the government to create a law that improves working conditions for delivery workers, and to hold public hearings on the issue. Led by the Taiwan Delivery Industry Rights Promotion Alliance (TDIRPA), delivery drivers also called on the government to scrutinize the proposed merger to ensure labor rights.
The TDIRPA said a law to protect food delivery workers should include requiring delivery platforms to guarantee remuneration levels, create standardized employment contracts, provide workers with health insurance, and ensure reasonable store profits.
“In addition to concerns about market monopoly and the impact on the rights and interests of delivery drivers, the Alliance is also concerned that this merger may cause harm to consumer rights, such as a worse service or less choices,” the TDIPRA said in a statement.
In mid-May, Uber Technologies, Inc. announced plans to take over rival food delivery platform Foodpanda’s operations in Taiwan in a US$950 million (NT$30.8 billion) cash deal. If the deal is made, Uber Eats would hold more than 80% of the food delivery market share in Taiwan according to the FTC, who said it will scrutinize the proposal.
Following the demonstration, the labor ministry's director of labor relations Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉) said that a meeting would be held within three weeks to discuss workers' demands. Labor minister Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) has asked the FTC to listen to the opinions of labor unions and the labor ministry itself when conducting a review of the merger, Wang said.
Wang said minister Ho is willing to work with all relevant groups to protect labor rights, and the rights of delivery workers, as deliberations progress.
Chair of the National Delivery Drivers Union and spokesperson for TDIRPA Chen Yu-an (陳昱安) told Taiwan News before the demonstration that a law to protect the interests of delivery drivers should still be created even if the merger does not go ahead. If the merger fails, there would still be two large companies dominating the market, which he said means poor working conditions for drivers.
He said a law is needed as unionization rates among delivery drivers are low, partly due to the high turnover of staff, and the structure of unions in Taiwan. Food delivery drivers may join an industrial union (one of the three types of union outlined by Taiwan's labor laws), which has historically had significantly lower membership than other union types.
According to Taiwan’s national statistics department, of the roughly 3.4 million unionized workers in Taiwan in 2021, only 2.6% were members of industrial unions.
