Protections for Platform Workers Affected by Food Delivery Platform Company's Exit from Singapore

15 Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked the Minister for Manpower in view of the recent announcement by a food delivery platform company to exit Singapore market which affects workers’ livelihoods, (a) what protections are in place to support the affected workers; (b) whether platform companies are required to provide notice and transition assistance; and (c) whether additional measures will be introduced to strengthen redeployment and income support during such disruptions.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Manpower (Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, this question for oral answer has been addressed by written reply, to Question No 97 on the Order Paper for the 7 April 2026 Sitting. [Please refer to "Help for Delivery Riders Affected by Recent Exit of Food Delivery Platform Company", Official Report, 7 April 2026, Vol 96, Issue 27, to Written Answers to Questions for Oral Answer Not Answered by End of Question Time section.]

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Punggol): Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the reply. Could the Ministry elaborate how the Government ensures that platform operators have clearer responsibilities to their workers in such situations, particularly in terms of data, transparency and workers communication? So that our workers can receive timely information on changes that will affect their livelihoods and so that they can make informed decisions early.

And also, in light of such exits, could the Ministry also clarify whether there are plans to put in place a more structured framework, including coordinated support across agencies and industries?

I recall for this particular case, we had our Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers' Association, as well as the National Delivery Champions Association from the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) coming in. But I do think that it would be good to have better coordination, so that there will be proactive matches to support our affected workers to alternative platforms or jobs.

And how do we ensure that the workers do not face prolonged income disruption, as well as hardship, and what kind of supports do we have for them during this transition?

Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong: I thank the Member for her two supplementary questions. To share more, platform operators and platform work associations should continue their bilateral discussions on the information that can be provided to workers. This has been done before, especially on the transparency of earnings and so on.

And to better guide these discussions, NTUC has led many of these discussions, for example, with platform work associations, major platform operators, to agree on a set of industry-wide and accepted principles, in terms of payment and incentive structures. Some of these things were discussed: for example, fair earnings, visibility on structural changes, incentive schemes. These were announced on 11 September 2025 by NTUC. So, I encourage NTUC to continue with these discussions and use these platforms to do it collaboratively.

On the second supplementary question, in this particular case, I want to share that the food delivery operator, had really worked closely with Workforce Singapore (WSG) and also NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute to step in to offer job matching capabilities and also career coaching in times of need.

The platform operator also worked, like what Member has mentioned, with the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers' Union and the National Delivery Champions Association to facilitate their outreach and transition. I thank the union and association for stepping up and working collaboratively with NTUC on this.

In addition, there will always be disruptions when there are transitions. The platform work associations, together with NTUC, should continue to help. There are schemes out there, for example, if a platform worker would like to transition to full-time employment or to a different platform, they can always approach WSG with a suite of capabilities, SkillsFuture, as well as the Career Conversion Programmes. For low-wage platform workers, they can also approach the social services office to help with financial assistance.