With family and gig communities grappling with the senseless death of Hungry Panda rider Jianming Feng on Friday in Melbourne, the TWU is calling on WorkSafe to urgently investigate whether the company has failed to properly assess and control risks to vulnerable workers.
In the wake of the rider’s death, the TWU is also calling on WorkSafe to investigate worker reports of being penalised for lost or stolen orders.
Following reports that Feng had confronted a man tampering with his bike, which was crucial to his ability to financially support his wife, two children and parents, the TWU will write to Hungry Panda urging it to provide risk assessments it should have taken under safety laws for workers, who are often involved in dangerous situations.
The TWU will also demand Hungry Panda’s plan for supporting the family of Jianming Feng, and the second rider who remains in hospital.
TWU members have for years been fighting back against Hungry Panda’s shameful tactics:
– 2020 death: When Hungry Panda rider Xiaojun Chen was killed in 2020, the company failed to report his death to the safety regulator as required by law, leaving the TWU to report the death. After his family was denied compensation, the TWU took his case to court and won
– Riders sacked and targeted for speaking out: Strikes by TWU members in 2021 saw riders sacked for speaking out against pay cuts reinstated, but Hungry Panda again targeted workers in 2023, blocking rider Zhuoying Wang from receiving food delivery orders after she spoke out about the company
– Reports to regulators: Last year the TWU wrote to gig platforms including Hungry Panda calling for answers on whether several horrific fatalities and violent assaults of gig workers have been properly reported to regulators like SafeWork.
25 gig workers have been killed in Australia since 2017.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
“This devastating violent death of a delivery worker just doing his job has hit the community hard right across the country.
“For a food delivery worker not to return home is a senseless tragedy that Jianming Feng’s family and the wider gig community will be forced to grapple with.
“For years, food delivery workers have fought back against Hungry Panda’s vicious and appalling tactics to silence workers and prevent them from taking action for fairer and safer work. That must end.
“Hungry Panda has legal obligations to do whatever it can to minimise risk as food delivery riders carry out their work. It must urgently confirm whether it has done this, and we are calling on WorkSafe to investigate whether it has failed in its duties here, as we have seen in the past with its failure to report a workplace death.
“We have also received reports that workers are being penalised by the company for lost or stolen orders, putting them directly in harm’s way to protect their income, and are calling on urgent answers from Hungry Panda.”
