More than 100 Deliveroo couriers in Hong Kong on Tuesday continued for a third straight day their protest against a new payment structure they say will cut their earnings.
The online food delivery platform, which saw business double in the first quarter of the year when many residents were forced to stay at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, said on Monday night that it had met the couriers’ representatives and would review their feedback.According to the couriers, they could earn a minimum of HK$35 (US$4.50) for a takeaway order made on foot, or HK$50 for an order made with motorcycles, or HK$55 per hour if they did not get any order in peak hours.
And the self-employed couriers of the food takeaway firm could choose how many orders they wanted to pick up.
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Under the new policy, the minimum earnings level was removed, and couriers have to take at least 80 per cent of assigned orders in a week to get a new “boost fee” bonus.
A representative of the riders said that translated into a pay cut of about 30 per cent for some of them.
“We are earning less than before, around HK$20 per order,” one rider said. “And the bonuses they claim they will provide to us are also impossible to get.
“They said we have to do 80 per cent of the orders through the weekend to earn that bonus. Which is impossible.”
On Sunday, riders in the firm’s fleet of more than 6,000 started a protest in different districts, which saw each of them taking just one order an hour.
Some claimed on social media that the protest had caused backlogs of orders at some restaurants and lengthened waiting times for customers.
About 200 riders gathered around Pier No 9 in Central on Monday afternoon to discuss their action before meeting management, but no progress was made, one courier said.
A Deliveroo spokesman did not know the number of couriers who had taken part in the protest and could not say how badly service had been hit.
“[Under the new pay structure ] rider fees will more accurately reflect the time it will take for riders to complete individual deliveries, and it is the case that riders can receive higher fees if they accept more than 80 per cent of the assigned orders. This is positive for riders, who will be able to increase their earnings,” the spokesman said.
The firm would arrange drop-in sessions this week in various locations to meet the riders and collect feedback, he added.
Deliveroo is one of three dominant courier services in Hong Kong, along with Foodpanda and UberEats.
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