NTUC To Help Food Delivery PMD Riders Find Jobs & Represent Them

Since it’s about PMD, here, see this handsome face again (watch it if you need to understand the PMD ban):

And for those worrying about the PMD riders’ livelihoods, NTUC is taking a stance to provide a voice for them.

A Meet-the-People Session was held at Block 322, Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 on 14 Nov 2019. Here, MP Ang Hee Kin, assistant director-general of National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) made an appearance.

So you might have noticed that isn’t technically NTUC speaking since Ang Hin Kee is MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, but considering his position, it might be same same.

Food Delivery Grew Too Fast

MP Ang told Mothership that the problems faced now are because the market for food delivery grew too fast over the last three years.

“[There is] a lot of willingness from households to buy the services, and for the restaurants to put themselves on the platform, and riders have the convenience to come in. This thing grew to a size today that offers great convenience and great options for those who want to look for a job, look for convenience and food.”

“This was not [done in] an incremental manner. It was a hyperbolic jump. Like the proliferation of shared bikes and the likes of it.”

NTUC Will Represent Food Delivery Riders

He also said that riders have asked them to represent food delivery riders, and NTUC have formed plans to do so:

“We are now collating members to join the trade union, and we will form an association to represent [them].”

This will be similar to how they regulate relations for private hire drivers, and freelance coaches and instructors. So they gather their views and represent them to talk to companies involved, government agencies, and the police.

Some of the topics that will be covered are things like cost of living, children’s education and insurance.

The food delivery riders under the association will also enjoy the usual benefits that other NTUC members enjoy.

And I don’t know about y’all, but that sounds like a thing to be happy about.

Career For Delivery Rider

Naturally, some food delivery riders may want to look at different careers.

“For this group contemplating to change careers, The Union can work with government agencies to channel funds for training costs as well as allowances during their training period when they don’t have income.”

One of such programmes are the Union’s Place & Train programme.

Notice he said “this group”. That’s because those looking for a career change are likely to want different things from a job than other delivery riders.

He noted that delivery riders generally might want the job for the flexibility:

“More than 85% of them (doing freelance work) say that they voluntarily enter into a freelance career… more than 85% said that they walked into this job with their eyes wide open,” Ang said.

“So those were the people who sort of found career options inside this space of disruptive technology, we saw how many people become private hire car driver, how many people became food deliver[ers] so it definitely created career options for those who need it for one reason or another.”

Misinterpretation Of Some Reports

Some people seem to have misinterpreted the article shared on certain sites.

Because although MP Ang was only talking about helping with a career switch for a specific group of delivery riders, Facebook comments went HAM on this point.

In fact, comments there are actually impressive in how unanimously they bash this point.

For instance, they talked about why delivery riders want to work as delivery riders in the first place. There are a lot more similar comments on Facebook, but let’s take a look at a few.

Anyway, back to one last point made by MP Ang.

Hope To Hear More From Food Delivery Companies

It’s pretty clear that the food delivery companies might need to change their business model or how rider rates are calculated.

He asked if these platforms can help delivery riders in the initial period of a drop in incomes.

Grab, for instance, has an e-scooter trade-in programme, but he noted that FoodPanda and Deliveroo haven’t announced anything yet.

We’re still in the pretty early stages of PMD adoption, so let’s keep it PMA, and I mean Positive Mental Attitude, yeah?