45 pct of motorbike couriers started to work during pandemic: ILO

ANKARA

About 45 percent of motorcycle couriers in Turkey started to work during the pandemic, and this trend led to growing problems and risks of occupational safety and health on the part of delivery employees over an increasing volume of orders and customer expectations of fast delivery, with sizeable numbers of them working in precarious conditions.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Office on Dec. 10 released its recent “Analysis of Psychosocial Risks for Employees of Delivery Sector Focusing on Motorcycle-Couriers” which investigated the intensive work pace, increasing workload, and risks to occupational safety and health of motorcycle couriers.

Of the motorcycle couriers who responded to the survey, 21.5 percent worked with no social security, whereas the rate was 68.4 percent for Syrian male motorcycle-couriers, according to the study.

The study sheds light on the overall working conditions and arrangements of motorcycle couriers, psychosocial risks in the context of occupational safety and health, occupational risks associated with migration status and gender, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motorcycle couriers.

Some 21.3 percent worked without an appropriate motorcycle driving license, while 26.1 percent were never asked for any certification before starting to work.

The survey displayed that 31.3 percent of Turkish motorcycle couriers and 65.8 percent of Syrian ones had no protective equipment.

Of the motorcycle couriers responding to the survey, 59.3 percent had work accidents, and of those who suffered accidents, 65.1 percent had no training on occupational safety and health at work.

Most of the motorcycle couriers frequently had the anxiety of having work accidents. Increasing workload, increase in working hours and intensity, and insufficient breaks compared to the working tempo are the leading psychosocial risks affecting couriers.

When the risks related to the work schedules and shifts of the motorcycle couriers were examined, 48.6 percent think the daily working time is too long, while the average daily working hours of the participants were found to be 11.2 hours.

When the break and leave schedules of the participants were evaluated, 60.7 percent of them work with the right to one day off a week, while 22 percent of them work without the right to weekly leave.