By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – The General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to scrutinize the status and working conditions of workers in the delivery services of food and goods who might be suffering some of the worst hardships amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
GAWA secretary general Wennie Sancho said that delivery workers are bearing the burden and the cost for the delivery of food and goods which are in demand.
Sancho cited a news item by Laura Bicker, a BBC correspondent in Seoul, South Korea, that 14 workers had already died because of overwork.
Their families described the causes of death as “kwarosa,” a Korean term used for sudden death due to heart failure or a stroke caused by extreme hard work.
Delivery drivers in South Korea are struggling to cope with the sheer volume of online orders during the pandemic, the report further said.
Sancho said “their government is calling for the overhauling of the working conditions for delivery employees.”
GAWA urged food delivery services to sign a declaration to ensure that delivery drivers get enough rest and do not have to work in continuous overnight shifts.
GAWA said contracts were signed by the workers with independent agents who act as middlemen rather than the company itself, leaving them outside the protection of labor laws.
Sancho called for the protection of the delivery workers by determining who their employers are.
Their contract of employment should spell out their salaries, wages, and other benefits since they are performing works that are necessary and desirable to the companies that hired them, Sancho added.
“Delivery services have become a profitable business in this pandemic-induced ‘new normal’,” he added.
Sancho said delivery drivers should be protected from exploitation by unscrupulous employers under the “over worked and underpaid” scheme.
