Help for Delivery Riders Affected by Recent Exit of Food Delivery Platform Company

Mr Jackson Lam asked the Minister for Manpower (a) how many delivery riders may be affected by the recent exit of a food delivery platform company in Singapore; (b) what support measures are available for riders facing income disruption; and (c) whether platform worker protections adequately address such sudden market exits by platform companies.

Regarding the number of riders affected, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) does not release company-level information, as such data is collected under the Statistics Act for the compilation of official statistics and is subject to confidentiality requirements.

As the nature of platform work is different from employment, not all support measures for employees affected by business closures are applicable for platform workers. For example, platform workers can decide whether and when to take on the next delivery job so the concept of employment termination notice period would not be applicable.

For employees, employers must provide them with the requisite notice period as stipulated in their employment contracts upon termination or follow the minimum notice period prescribed under the Employment Act if the contract is silent. Companies that employ at least 10 employees are required to submit a mandatory retrenchment notification so that Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the National Trades Union Congress' Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) can provide employment facilitation support.

For platform workers, they can take on jobs from other platform operators or approach WSG, e2i and relevant platform work associations for career matching services and training programmes.

In the case of the said food delivery platform operator, WSG and e2i stepped in to offer job matching support and career coaching to both affected employees and platform workers. The platform operator also worked with the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers' Union and National Delivery Champions Association to facilitate their outreach and assistance to union members.

Workers from lower-income households, regardless of the employment type, may also approach their Social Service Office to seek financial assistance if needed.