Lalamove drivers to get formal representation, digital literacy training under new pact

SINGAPORE – For about three years, Mr Aloysius Lee worked every day of the week, for 12 to 14 hours a day, delivering food and small furniture to customers of logistics company Lalamove in his sedan.

Amid the risk of fatigue, carrying heavy loads and road accidents, the 31-year-old was unsure what recourse he would have if he got injured or met with an accident.

But with a pact inked between Lalamove and a national association that champions the welfare, job and wage prospects of food and package delivery workers on Nov 28, Mr Lee is assured that he will know where to go to for help.

He and other delivery drivers using Lalamove will have a formal process to raise work-related grievances or disputes after the logistics company signed an agreement to recognise the National Delivery Champions Association (NDCA), so that these workers can be represented by the association.

This recognition hinges on NDCA, an affiliate of the National Trades Union Congress, being successful in its application to be a platform work association under the

new Platform Workers Act

, which takes effect on Jan 1, 2025.

“Before this, we didn’t know which channel to go to when we have issues, like medical work-related accidents and claims,” said Mr Lee, who recently cut down work to five days a week in early November, after his one-year-old daughter started pre-school.

“But now it’s clearer what we need to do, or what steps we need to take.”

Under the new law, platform workers – or delivery workers, private-hire car drivers and taxi drivers who rely on online matching platforms like Lalamove and Grab for work – will be able to form representative bodies called platform work associations, with similar legal powers to trade unions.

These new entities can sign legally binding collective agreements with operators, and gain access to various avenues of redress, including the right to strike if the decision is considered and justified.

Apart from formal procedures to report work-related grievances or disputes, the pact between Lalamove and NDCA will also allow workers on the delivery platform to share concerns and feedback about work policies and conditions with NDCA, which will bring them to the attention of Lalamove’s management to address these issues.

Platform workers using Lalamove will also get digital literacy training on topics such as scam prevention under the memorandum of understanding, which was signed by Lalamove Singapore senior manager of driver operations Javier Wong and NDCA executive secretary Jean See at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Paya Lebar on Nov 28.

When asked by The Straits Times, Lalamove declined to disclose how many delivery drivers use its platform.

Ms Cham Hui Fong, deputy secretary-general of NTUC, said the partnership paves the way for platform workers to be better protected. She added that the tie-up between NDCA and Lalamove “forms the foundation for us to improve earnings, welfare and work prospects for delivery partners”.

Two other NTUC-affiliated associations representing platform workers – the National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA) and the National Taxi Association (NTA) – have also applied to be platform work associations under the Platform Workers Act, noted Ms Cham.

At present, NDCA, NPHVA and NTA can engage the various online platforms only informally because they are registered societies, not unions.

So work-related grievances and disputes can be discussed only if the platforms are willing to listen, and resolving them depends on the operators’ goodwill.

The Platform Workers Act makes it mandatory for all platform operators to provide platform workers with work injury compensation insurance with the same level of coverage as employees.

Higher Central Provident Fund contribution rates will also be compulsory for younger platform workers born from Jan 1, 1995, and optional for older workers.