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| Members of the delivery worker union protest , some on scooters, at Gangnam Station in Seoul on April 29. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han |
By Kim Jae-heun
Food delivery service firms such as Woowa Brothers and Delivery Hero met with the labor union of delivery drivers at YWCA Building in Jung-gu, Seoul, Tuesday, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to recognize their delivery workers as laborers by law and promised to improve their working environment.
Delivery workers have been exposed to various dangers and disadvantages as most of them were hired temporarily to cope with soaring demand for food delivery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is no law to protect riders who get into accidents and it is difficult for them to take legal action against the companies over unfair contracts.
For now, the agreement signed between the two parties will implement ad hoc measures to close the labor law loophole and a consultative body will soon be established to urge amelioration of the legal system to the government.
The main idea of this agreement is to recognize that food delivery platforms are in fact employers and that delivery workers are laborers.
Woowa Brothers' delivery drivers are only part-time workers and they are not protected by law nor can they form a union to improve working conditions.
However, the agreement will now give them legal status as a negotiation body.
The delivery service companies have to allocate duties reasonably and fairly between their workers depending on their career, working area and vehicle they use. When different tasks are to be given to certain workers, they have to be notified as well.
This is the result of riders' earlier requests as they were allocated different amounts of work based on what companies told them was a decision by their supercomputer's algorithm.
Companies said they will give priority to their part-time workers when they hire people for permanent positions.
Online platform operators should encourage their workers to take out occupational health and safety insurance while providing proper work education and protective equipment.
When rider-customer disputes erupt, the companies should intervene on behalf of their laborers.
Safety measures need to be prepared for natural disasters like major weather events or pandemics.
Most importantly, companies must not push their workers to deliver food quickly at the expense of safety nor come up with new policies that establish competition between delivery riders as an incentive.
The new consultation body will be established within three months to maintain and develop all the items of agreement.
In the near future, the organization will provide a new delivery fee system for riders and a new company policy to equally distribute work between delivery drivers while establishing facilities to train new delivery service providers.
"Today's agreement is meaningful in that the two parties have selected an official agenda to be discussed in the near future. We have reflected all our rights as laborers in written form," a Rider Union official said.
"This is the first voluntary agreement made between the company and union in the private sector. I hope practical policies are adopted reflecting the requests and suggestions from the delivery drivers, which can help them work safely," Woowa Brothers CEO Kim Beom-joon said.
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