"In typhoons, [south] Korea’s delivery drivers are forced to choose between extra cash and safety"

(Article is from August 11) Excerpts:

A 54-year-old delivery worker surnamed Kim was taking his 13th delivery call of the day when Typhoon Khanun came within reach of Seoul around 1 pm on Thursday. He was wrestling with whether to stop delivering for the day or to keep going despite the risk. The delivery platforms were still active, and some of them were even running promotions that offered delivery workers 10,000 won for every five orders they delivered. “If I want to reach my target income, I need to work on days like this, but it’s so dangerous. Just a little while ago, I almost slid out while I was crossing a bridge.”

The Delivery Platform Labor Union and the Riders Union told the Hankyoreh on Thursday that most of the major delivery platforms had only told drivers to take precautions during the typhoon while keeping their delivery services up and running.

Some of the platforms offered cash incentives to delivery workers under the pretext of safe driving. Coupang Eats sent a message to drivers in the Gwangju, Busan and Daegu areas offering incentives of 15,000-16,500 won (US$11-12) for a promotion called “Mission: Encouraging safe delivery.”

“While the majority of promotions are ostensibly about safe driving, they’re designed to bring out more delivery workers on days when it’s dangerous to drive. That forces workers to choose between being safe and making some extra money,” said Kim Jong-min, head of strategy and policy for the Delivery Platform Labor Union. In a statement it put out on Thursday, the union said that delivery platforms’ typhoon response “left preparations for dangers up to individual riders.”

The right to suspend delivery service in cases that present serious risks, including typhoons, heavy snowfall, heavy rainfall, and other circumstances is laid out in the deal reached by the Delivery Platform Labor Union and Baemin in June.

On Thursday morning, Baemin partially suspended its services in areas such as Gangwon, Gyeongsang, Jeolla provinces and Jeju Island, where the effects of the typhoon were intense.