PETALING JAYA: In his line of work, 23-year-old Mior Syamel Mior Razi (pix) dices with injury and death every day.
As a food delivery rider, he rushes through traffic to ensure meals are still hot when he hands them over to customers. However, his luck ran out recently.
“I was on a delivery run to Sungai Besi when I was hit by a car. I was flung from my motorcycle and landed a few metres away,” he told theSun.
He ended up with a broken leg and countless stitches on his body. He also broke his back.
In order to get back on his feet, he was given two choices, to undergo surgery to put a metal plate to support his backbone or a brace that he would have to wear for life.
With his employer unprepared to pay more than RM240, which is insufficient to cover the cost of the surgery, Mior Syamel opted for the brace.
Meanwhile, he waits for his day in court to get justice and hopefully, sufficient compensation to ensure he can finally get the surgery he needs.
Mior Syamel is just one of many gig economy workers, mostly delivery riders, who put their lives on the line just to make ends meet. Since movement restrictions forced most people to stay in and work from home, there has been an increase in the demand for their services.
However, these workers have little to fall back on, apart from the Social Security Organisation (Socso) if they are involved in an accident.
Socso head of prevention, medical and rehabilitation division Dr Azlan Darus said at a webinar recently that more than a billion ringgit has been paid out as compensation for injury or death as a result of road accidents.
“The proportion of claims paid out to delivery riders continues to rise,” he said.
Younger individuals are most vulnerable. Data from Socso’s social studies show that 65% of all road accidents involve people under the age of 40, and 80% of them are men.
However, this could also mean that most people who choose to become delivery riders are below middle age, and a vast majority of them are men.
Going by statistics provided by the Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department, there has been at least one road accident involving delivery riders every day since the movement control order (MCO) was first imposed on March 18 last year.
In July last year, statistics from the police revealed there were a total of 150 accidents involving these riders in the three months from March 18.
Of the 150, 92 were working for Foodpanda and the remainder for Grabfood.
Despite the risks, many have no choice but to turn to the gig economy to make ends meet.
Many of them have turned to riding their motorcycles across the city every day because no other jobs are available to them.
On the bright side, the government has introduced several initiatives to provide protection to those in the gig economy as part of its stimulus packages.
Among them are PenjanaGig, SPS Lindung and SPS Prihatin Wanita.
However, the risks they face on the road cannot be alleviated through assistance alone.
