More details on platform worker protections revealed

Mr Sim said: “Sometimes the negotiations were not easy as platform operators are genuinely concerned about the impact on their business model. Thus, one of the key principles to guide negotiations between representative bodies and platform operators is that platform operators need not divulge their proprietary information or negotiate on commercially sensitive matters.”

A food delivery worker, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, said it can be difficult to raise issues with platform operators, and he hopes this will change when bodies like the National Delivery Champions Association (NDCA) are legally empowered to negotiate with the platforms.

“Most of the time, when you raise a ticket through the platform app, they just close it without giving a proper reason,” said the 38-year-old.

Platform worker Malcolm Pang, 36, said if workers’ voices are heard at the government level and by platform operators, policies can be formulated that have their interests as a priority. “With representation, I think they will listen to us more,” he added.

NDCA president Goh Yong Wei said platform workers will get more bargaining power, but cautioned that this should not be abused.

The 31-year-old said platform operators have already listened to the concerns raised by the NDCA and worked with the association to address them, even when it did not have a mandate to formally represent delivery workers.

“It is about working in harmony… We cannot squeeze the platforms too hard because if they decide to close shop, we are going to have a lot of unemployment,” Mr Goh added.

Mr Ian Lim, head of employment and labour at TSMP Law Corporation, said collective representation for platform workers here could make a major difference in terms of how they are treated, as this group has little voice or bargaining power at the moment.

“All they can really do is vote with their feet and not work under a particular app or platform, and sometimes even doing that is difficult,” he added.

Mr Lim said one potential challenge is whether the representative bodies for platform workers can speak for such a diverse and disparate group of workers in the same way that trade unions do for employees, since unionised employees may be relatively more homogenous.

When negotiating memorandums of understanding and collective agreements with platform operators after the new laws kick in, platform worker representative bodies might also have their eye on terms that deal with how the various platforms assign jobs to workers, and how workers are paid and rewarded.

Mr Kelvin Tan, director and co-head of employment at Drew & Napier, said Singapore’s approach to platform worker representation provides a good alternative structure for peaceful collaboration.

As work models evolve, the recommendations also provide a structure that could be adapted to other forms of work that do not fit the definition of employment, he added.