After attending the NSW parliamentary hearing on 23 Feb, HungryPanda received more attentions from the media and the government. Media used fearful words on their headlines to describe the process of hearing.
HungryPanda, founded in 2017 in the United Kingdom to satisfy the overseas Chinese consumers by providing authentic and traditional Chinese food. Now the company has expended across dozens of cities in six countries. In Australia, the company operates in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
The parliamentary hearing focused on the issues of riders’ contractor identity, which aroused the fierce debate between the ruling party and opposition parties. Moreover, even the HungryPanda company and the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association explained clearly, the committee (opposition parties) didn’t buy the theory. Obviously, they have an explicit political aim by posing tough questions with the incorrect descriptions for the contractor and the company. They also invited two protesting riders to ‘represent’ the whole riders’ group.
The two riders are not the employee of HungryPanda, they are food delivery contractors. This flexible policy allows riders to work for themselves, and they can easily adjust their working time. But the committee kept asking questions with an attitude that they are official employees. What’s more, the media also did the same thing, by using dismissal and helpless words to accuse the HungryPanda, without any solid proof, only the two riders’ statements.
One rider, Yang Jun has been terminated the contract by the company, as HungryPanda uses restaurants and customers review to evaluate the service quality delivered by the riders, unsatisfied behaviors and low rating scores could lead to the termination of the contractor relationship. Yang Jun has one of the lowest rating score, and he recently abused the delivery operator, which is not tolerant by the company’s policy. The termination does not relate to the protesting he involved, based on the description of ABC News and Sydney Morning Herald. There are 20 riders participated the first protesting in Sydney, but only Yang Jun was terminated the contract, then the media started to assume the termination relates to the protesting, which is quite illogical. There is no difficult to find that the media just want to have an impressive news, but not the truth.
During the parliamentary hearing, Yang Jun also said his delivery rate decreased from $7.5 per delivery to $3 per delivery. But from the salary invoice provided by HungryPanda, the real average delivery rate is around $7. Since the invoice is legal, Yang Jun was lying for sure. Furthermore, he claimed that he works 12 hours per day and earn $150. But another rider Sun Fang works 9 hours per day and earn $260. The data definitely diminish the statement creditability. The media didn’t notice the strange figures or they may intend not to use it as those figures are not helpful for them to attract the public, conflicts and companies’ faults are always the best selling point for them.