ORGANIZED labor has called on the government to provide occupational safety and health standards protection for two-wheel and four-wheel app-based riders who have become victims of unfair labor practices for lack of so-called employer-employee relationship with their companies. The group pointed out that motorcycle riders were providing mobility to passengers, delivery of food and nonfood items amid constant exposure to air pollution, rain and extreme heat and the lack of protection against infection from Covid-19. The exponentially emerging gig also provided jobs to thousands of workers in the formal and informal economy who were displaced by the pandemic shutdown. But these drivers are only regarded by mobile and online app operators as mere “business partners”, “freelancers” and/or “independent contractors’’ to evade labor responsibilities and obligations that an employer-employee relationship requires, the labor group said. App-owners and operators, who should be the principal employers, also ignore the most important standard wages and social protection benefits and payment due these types of gig economy workers despite a clear working existence of an employer-employee relationship between them, it added.

Source: Manila Times November 19, 2020 16:25 UTC