By Tracy Chen 陳瑞珠Since two deliverymen were killed in two separate accidents within just four days of each other, food delivery platforms have come under scrutiny for ignoring couriers’ labor rights and for not providing them with labor and health insurance. After the fine, Foodpanda immediately released a statement saying that it merely provides job-matching opportunities to businesses and workers, whom it regards as contract workers, not employees. With such an operating model, it is difficult to argue that the platform and all receivers are in an employment relationship, or that the platform should direct and supervise them. The nation’s regulations have been lagging the innovations industry, which is detrimental to the development of start-up technologies. The ministry needs to adopt a more objective approach when defining the relationship as one of employment, which punishes the operators.

Source: Taipei Times October 22, 2019 15:56 UTC