A labor NGO hailed today a Tacloban City labor court ruling declaring 126 Foodpanda riders as regular employees of the company, and called on the leading online food and grocery delivery platform to implement and nationalize the ruling and respect its workers’ labor rights.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) praised the ruling of Tacloban’s National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) office, claiming that many platform companies have refused to grant riders the status of regular employees to remove them from the coverage of labor laws.

“This is a very important and one can say landmark ruling for labor rights. Foodpanda should heed and even nationalize this ruling. Other platform companies should also follow suit,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

The Tacloban Foodpanda riders are led by Mr. Normito Ragasa, union president of the Tacloban chapter of the Foodpanda workers’ union, while the NLRC ruling was released by Executive Labor Arbiter Gwen Noreen A. Camiling-Uy.

“It is deeply ironic that companies that have been earning a lot in recent years have deviced measures to prevent workers from getting their fair share from those earnings. Companies that are at the cutting edge of modern technologies have adopted new ways to impose old, pre-labor rights conditions on their workers,” Deligente added.

CTUHR cited the study “Fairwork Philippines 2025 Ratings: Labour on the Edge – Riding through Extreme Weather and Precarious Labour” which states that most companies in the so-called gig economy consider their workers as “independent contractors” to deny them labor rights that are mandated by law.
https://fair.work/en/fw/publications/fairwork-philippines-2025/

“The victory of the Tacloban Foodpanda riders should serve as an inspiration to Foodpanda and gig workers in the entire country. They should unite and claim their rights. The country’s courts and legislature should be sensitive towards their plight and issue rulings and make legislation that will ensure workers’ employee status and labor rights,” Deligente stated.

The Fairwork Philippines report highlights the dangers posed to riders by environmental conditions that are being worsened by climate change – extreme heat, flooding, air pollution, among others. It also presents the riders’ employment status as key for them to attain their rights to a living wage and job security, and the right to unionize and collectively bargain.