The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently issued a praiseworthy landmark ruling regarding the status of hundreds of thousands of food delivery platform riders in Thailand, many of whom have been complaining of unfair treatment from the platform owners.
The commission ruled that the riders are not business partners of the platform owners or freelancers, but rather they are their employees and their relationship is in accordance with Section 575 of the Civil and Commercial Code and Section 5 of the Labour Protection Act BE 2541.
This means the riders are entitled to rights and welfare under the labour protection law and social security law just like employees in other businesses.
In coming up with this landmark ruling, the rights commission took into consideration court rulings in countries like France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the US state of California regarding the relationship between the platform operators and their delivery workers.
It concluded that the platform operators have the power to control and punish riders and, hence, they have an employer-employee relationship.
Since the NHRC's ruling is not legally binding on the platform owners, including Line Man, Grab and Robinhood, it should serve as an important wake-up call for the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and the Ministry of Labour to ensure the ruling is enforced and ensure the fair treatment of platform riders.
Platform riders of several service providers have complained about "batch orders" which require them to make more food deliveries to more customers in one round without getting extra pay and, sometimes, results in delayed deliveries and complaints by customers.
Such complaints can often lead to a reprimand and brief suspension of work by the platform owners.
Platform food delivery services are a big business in Thailand after the industry received a shot in the arm during the Covid pandemic from 2020-22 when most people, especially in Bangkok and other big cities, chose to stay home for their safety and order food to their doorstep. Ever since, eating indoors in privacy instead of going out to restaurants or street food stalls has become a normal lifestyle choice for many urban citizens.
According to the Kasikorn Research Centre, the food delivery industry was estimated to be worth 42 billion baht a year in 2014. It jumped to 68 billion baht in 2020 when Covid struck Thailand that January. The trade volume expanded in tandem with the pandemic to 76 billion baht in 2022 and 82 billion baht the following year as home deliveries became the new normal.
Despite the booming trade, riders used to protest against the platform owners for unfair treatment, such as reduced pay for each round of deliveries, averaging 10 to 16 a day, with an increased workload from batch orders. They protested to both the Pheu Thai and Move Forward parties but to no avail.
It is high time for the government, especially the Labour Ministry, to ensure fairness to all parties concerned, riders in particular.
The first thing to do is determine the riders' legal status so they are entitled to basic rights afforded employees under the law. More importantly, they must be brought into the tax system so they can enjoy full welfare benefits.