AFTER engaging with Foodpanda delivery riders, the Human Resources Ministry will today meet the company’s management over riders’ complaints about a new payment system.

Ministry officials met riders yesterday, when Foodpanda began a new scheme that removes an hourly wage for riders and replaces it with a scheduled rate for each delivery.

“The director of the Kuala Lumpur Industrial Relations Department and officers from the Peninsular Malaysia Labour Department will hold further meetings with the company management this afternoon to seek an explanation over issues that riders have raised,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it took the welfare of workers in the gig economy seriously, and would ensure that the interests of riders and Foodpanda are protected.

Foodpanda riders in several states went on strike yesterday to protest against the new payment scheme, which removes the RM4 per hour wage.

The new scheme is only applicable to riders outside the Klang Valley, but Klang Valley riders participated in a brief strike yesterday as a show of solidarity.

Riders will now be paid between RM4.50 and RM7 per delivery, a RM3 to RM5 increase over what they were paid per delivery previously.

The company is also giving them an incentive of RM100 if they work 60 hours a week, and an extra RM1 per order for all orders between 11pm and 9am daily.

Foodpanda has said the new scheme is meant to give riders flexibility to choose when and where they wished to work.

The riders’ major complaint, however, is that they will not earn as much without the hourly fee. – October 1, 2019.