With the delivery partners’ best interest at heart, foodpanda Malaysia, the leading online delivery platform, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Social Security Organisation (PERKESO) today, to provide wider and better coverage of social protection to over 60,000 of its delivery partners under the PERKESO’s Self-Employment Social Security Scheme (SKSPS).
The MoU, which was signed between YBhg. Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohammed Azman bin Dato’ Aziz Mohammed, Chief Executive, PERKESO and Sayantan Das, Managing Director, foodpanda Malaysia in the presence of Datuk Seri M. Saravanan, Minister of Human Resources, will see delivery partners receiving subsidised protection from the government and complemented by foodpanda, under the Budget 2022’s initiative – SPS Padanan Caruman (SPS Contribution Matching).
Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said the SPS Padanan Caruman is an incentive offered to the self-employed individuals (OBS) including gig workers to ensure that they are protected against any mishaps while carrying out their work. This is in line with the Government’s Keluarga Malaysia values that emphasise caring spirit among Malaysia’s multi-cultural society.
The SKSPS is a protection plan for self-employed insured persons against self-employment injury including occupational diseases and accidents during work-related activities. Some of the benefits under this plan include, medical, temporary and permanent disablement, dependants’ benefit, constant-attendance allowance, funeral, education, and state-of-art facilities for physical or vocational rehabilitation.
“The SKSPS also provides assistance through the SPS Padanan Caruman programme in which the government provides incentives of up to 80% for individual contributors. foodpanda Malaysia, on the other hand, will subsidise 50% of the remaining balance (or 10% of the total amount) for foodpanda delivery partners, amounting to RM23.30 per person, for one year protection” said YBhg. Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohammed Azman bin Dato’ Aziz Mohammed.
Commenting on this impactful initiative, Sayantan Das said, “We would like to thank both the government and PERKESO for spearheading this initiative for our delivery partners. As a disruptor in the q-commerce space, our mission has always been to play our part in uplifting the B40 community and the livelihood of their families by improving their income through our platform. This is aligned with the government’s aspiration to transform Malaysia into a digitally-enabled and technology-driven high income nation, as well as a regional leader in the digital economy.”
foodpanda is the leading delivery platform in APAC with more than 12.5 million customers and over 60,000 restaurant partners, providing limitless possibilities to Malaysians intending to join the gig economy. Since 2020, foodpanda has carried out various initiatives to assist the B40 community and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) including but not limited to removing or subsidising onboarding costs, marketing expenditures, POS installation costs, and training sessions. foodpanda is already assisting SMEs or MSMEs in their effort to be more successful and has assisted more than 20,000 entrepreneurs, including home cooks, women entrepreneurs, and B40 businesses.
Das added, “foodpanda Malaysia is committed to protecting our delivery partners and this remains our top priority given that they are exposed to occupational dangers on a daily basis. We believe this announcement is a crucial step given the important role that delivery partners have in our ecosystem. We truly hope this initiative would help ease their commitment in contributing to this protection scheme and encourage more of our delivery partners to sign up. We look forward to continuing our partnership with both the government and PERKESO to introduce more benefits in future.”
This partnership with foodpanda Malaysia marks the first MoU signing under this initiative for PERKESO. Registrations are now available via the Rider Shop portal for foodpanda delivery partners who are keen to sign-up and receive the subsidy from foodpanda.