Page 19 - Voice and representation of platform driver in VietNam

CHAPTER 3: Loyalty, exit or voice? Platform workers’ organising strategies 13

Figure 9: How does the platform company respond to your 20 percent would choose to do so. More importantly,
queries/grievances? (n=277) a quarter of surveyed drivers would opt to stay and
negotiate with the platforms to uphold their working
conditions. In these cases, they have turned to collective
18% 22% No response action, just like workers in traditional sectors have done
for centuries, to make their voices heard. Across the
Threats to drivers who voice up world, platform drivers have resorted to various forms
Unsatisfactory response of collective action, such as strikes (turning off their
18%
Only respond upon collective actions apps), demonstrations, neglection (for instance, by
faking orders on apps), and legal action (by filing cases
4% Immediate and thorough response
38% at court, as in the case of Uber workers in the United
Kingdom). Strikes have been the most common: in
India alone by September 2020, there had been 115
strike actions taken against local players in the ride-
In contrast to the supposedly non-traditional business hailing and food delivery sectors. In Indonesia, there
model of work platforms in which driver-partners are had been 25 strikes against the two biggest ride-hailing
granted the flexibility to turn off the app if they are not platforms, Grab and Gojek. 38
happy with the conditions, as this survey shows, only

Table 1: Strikes by ride-hailing and delivery platform workers in Vietnam
Source: Review of online Vietnamese newspapers (last updated 20 April 2021)

Number of
Time of
No. Platform drivers on Causes of strikes Outcomes
strike
strike
1 22-01-2016 Uber Hanoi N/A New trip target to reach bonus point. No change

Increase of extraction rate for bike-
2 14-08-2017 Grab Hanoi N/A No change
riders by 5 percent.
Increase of extraction rate from 20% Keep the 20%
3 Jan. 2018 Grab A few hundred
to 23.6 percent. rate
New bonus system making it harder
4 18-07-2019 GoViet A few hundred No change
for riders to reach target.
Grab ceased
VAT collection
Grab collect value-added tax (VAT) for for riders and
5 27-08-2019 Grab HCMC A few hundred
riders, but not in a transparent way. returned the
collected taxes
to riders
Be reduced the rate of bonus (based
6 11-11-2019 Be Hanoi N/A on daily turnover) from 15 to 10 No change
percent.
Go Viet reduced the daily bonus rate
7 25-11-2019 GoViet Hanoi N/A No change
from VND20,000 to VND14,000.
Now applies a new set of bonus
targets, which makes delivery riders
8 12-08-2020 Now A few hundreds No change
work longer hours (at least 29 orders
per day).

38 https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1980967/labour-strikes-against-the-algorithm

Voice and representation of platform drivers in Vietnam