KK Foodpanda riders go on strike
Published on: Monday, September 30, 2019
By: Hayati Dzulkifli
KOTA KINABALU: More than 100 Foodpanda riders claiming to represent some 500 here went on strike, Sunday, in protest against the implementation of a new payment/incentive scheme for them, effective today (Monday).
They demanded that Foodpanda Malaysia retain the old scheme which they said is better, fairer and motivates them to earn more compared to the revised scheme which reduces their earnings. Under the old scheme, they said each rider could earn more than RM1,000 per week based on hourly rate, but under the new scheme the most they could earn is about RM630 per week for 30-hour work.
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Their spokesperson, Erwin Omar, said the main purpose of the strike was to convey a strong message to the Foodpanda management that the riders disagreed with the new scheme based on per order instead of hourly previously.
He said they were only notified about the implementation of the scheme on Wednesday (Sept 25).
“We have conducted a thorough study on the old and new schemes and found that we will lose out under the revised scheme. Under the old one, we were paid RM4 per hour and RM5 per order.
“But under the new scheme, we are only paid between RM4.50 and RM7 per order, based on which batch/ranking the rider is in.
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“The higher the batch the rider is in, the more he or she would get, with a maximum of RM7 per order in an hour, which is RM2 less compared to the normal RM9 per order per hour that we used to get. If the rider were in a lower batch, then he or she would get RM4.50 or RM5 per order,” he explained.
Erwin, who joined as a Foodpanda rider since June this year, said this to Daily Express after staging the strike at Padang Bandaran, here.
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To a question, he said each rider could get 20 orders on average and the highest they would make is RM7 per order regardless of the pricing of the order.
“Under the new incentive, if the rider works up to 60 hours, then he or she is paid RM100. Under the old scheme where we were paid RM4 per hour, we could get RM240 (60 times RM4 per hour). Hence, we see that although we are working more hours under the new scheme, we do not get what we deserve and our weekly income is also reduced.
“The new system will lower our weekly income to between RM396 and RM630 per week for over 30-hour work, which also depends on which batch is the rider in,” he said.
Erwin said the riders are working up to 15 hours per day, from 8am until 1am, and the rooster is out every Wednesday or Thursday based on which batch they are in and it is also limited.
Furthermore, he claimed the work schedule for the riders is getting lesser where among the 500 riders, who are mostly doing the job full-time, only between 200 and 300 riders are scheduled to work in a day.
“The rest are left jobless when it is important for the riders to work more hours so that they can improve their ranking to be in a higher batch. Even for a full-time rider, he or she would be working only two to three days per week.”
Another dissatisfaction, Erwin said, is the new scheme is applicable in Sabah, Johor, Ipoh in Perak and Penang and not in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
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