(Part 2/2)
Company and government response to intense heat and rain
Company responses to assist riders with what have become regular, not exceptional, job hazards of extreme heat, heavy rains or typhoons, and flooding have yet to become official and consistent.
Last year, Yen’s food delivery platform offered them voucher codes to redeem a drink from some convenience stores. She has yet to receive any this year.
“The company said nothing but be careful,” said Yen.
Maricar’s ride-hailing app, meanwhile, provides weekly weather updates. One time last year, her company’s CEO provided P1,000 cash aid to some riders from Valenzuela City trapped in their communities due to the flood.
In response to the rising heat index’s effects on the workforce, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) directed employers to implement safety and health measures to prevent and control heat stress at the workplace.
DOLE Labor Advisory No. 08, Series of 2023 recommends that employers provide adequate ventilation and heat insulation in all areas where workers are present, adjust rest breaks and locations to recover from heat exposure, offer temperature-appropriate uniforms, provide free and adequate drinking water, and flexible working arrangements. The DOLE Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC) said this applies to platform riders.
“We encourage app-based companies to adopt measures that can help mitigate heat stress among their riders, as their day-to-day work makes them susceptible to the effects of extreme temperatures,” said the DOLE BWC in response to Manila Today’s questions on the government’s response to heat exposure of platform riders.
The staff bureau of DOLE also added that Labor Advisory No. 14, Series of 2021 provides that occupational safety and health standards and better working conditions apply to all riders in food delivery and courier activities using digital platforms.
However, various labor groups have criticized the advisory for being vague. While it affirmed the reality of riders as independent contractors, it left the interpretation of whether to treat them as independent contractors or employees to the digital platforms. So if the platforms deem the former, the status quo prevails.
Addressing the economic impacts of the rising heat index
Defend Jobs Philippines (DJP) Executive Director Benjamin Cordero said they have lobbied with the DOLE since 2024 to consider platform riders among “displaced workers” due to the substantial number of hours or days they could not work because of extreme weather.
“We started this initiative when we learned from parcel delivery riders that they could not work for four to eight hours, mostly 12 to 4 pm, some 10 am to 4 pm, and a few from 8 am to 4 pm because of the extreme heat in 2024. That’s almost a whole day’s work lost,” said Cordero.
Come the wet season, typhoons and flooding could shut down platform riders’ livelihoods for days to weeks. Due to extreme weather conditions, platform riders experience potential income losses year-round.
“If you add up all those days in the year they experienced this, they’re like without a job or income for two to four months,” said Cordero.
DJP is exploring the inclusion of platform riders among “displaced workers” to make them eligible for DOLE’s financial assistance programs, such as TUPAD, to compensate for their productivity losses. TUPAD is designed to assist individuals and families negatively affected by disasters, economic shocks, or income loss.
However, the group learned that exploring such an option for financial assistance is complicated when applied to platform riders.
“Maybe the funds and the program could be channeled to the local government units. Several congressional districts would be involved since the riders live in different cities. It’s a lot of work coordinating and getting approvals from various government units and then gathering the riders,” explained Cordero.
DJP further asserts that riders should be considered regular employees, as they pass the four-fold test and the economic reality test (which determines whether the services rendered by a worker are considered integral to the employer’s business) under the country’s labor laws. Thus, they are entitled to rights and benefits that regular workers enjoy, such as social benefits and health insurance.
“This way, the company might be able to help address improving working conditions for platform riders, including heat exposure,” Cordero said.
Exploring nature-based solutions to heat exposure
On April 24, PAGASA stated that the Philippines had yet to experience the peak heat of summer. However, higher temperatures are expected in the coming weeks.
If it’s any comfort, this year will not be as hot as last year. In January, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that 2024 is the warmest year on record. Likewise, PAGASA confirmed that 2024 is the hottest year in the country since monitoring began in 1951.
Urbanization and population growth in the metro also increase the impact of rising temperatures, as natural environments are replaced with heat-trapping surfaces. Development Asia warned that cities affected by the urban heat island effect face the risk of heightened temperatures. Cities with less soil than cement, asphalt, and concrete that trap heat recorded higher temperatures than those surrounding rural areas.
Dr. Lagmay said we are experiencing the effects of climate change that experts have long warned about; the solution is to fight it.
Response to climate change is a two-pronged approach of mitigation and adaptation. Climate change mitigation on the macro level entails reducing greenhouse gas emissions by shifting from fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) to renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal) and enhancing carbon sinks by planting trees and protecting critical ecosystems like wetlands and mangroves. At the individual level, it means reducing the carbon footprint. Meanwhile, adaptation is anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking action to prevent or minimize them. The former is designed to have long-term effects, while the latter is necessarily taken on sooner, as climate change effects are already being experienced.
“The primary goal is to reduce vulnerability and risk, enhance resilience, and improve well-being in the face of climate change impacts,” Dr. Lagmay said of climate change adaptation.
Because the riders’ workplace is the open road, addressing heat exposure and stress in the metro should go beyond the personal and the company. One overarching and medium-to-long-term solution to heat exposure is “cooling” urban areas. This may be achieved by protecting natural environments and “greening” programs to help lower temperatures.
Green spaces
Green spaces such as street trees, urban parks and forests, grasslands, and wetlands cool cities by providing natural shade and promoting evaporative cooling, which converts heat from the air into water vapor.
In July last year, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) NCR announced a 47% increase in green spaces, pending verification, from 2011 to 2024.
The agency acknowledged this was achieved through the efforts of local government units. For one, the Quezon City local government has rehabilitated 25 open spaces and parks in its bid to protect the environment and provide leisure spaces for its citizens. Meanwhile, Makati boasted an estimated green space of 5.73 km, with 40 parks, thousands of trees, and vertical greening of public facilities.
Various biker groups and environmentalists have suggested planting trees and shrubs along roadsides to provide shade, reduce direct sunlight exposure, and lower air temperature. Designing roadside greenbelts will also help remove air pollutants.
Metro Manila is one of the areas of focus of DENR’s Enhanced National Greening Program. However, the availability of open spaces for planting remains challenging since most are owned by private entities and intended for development. Due to this, the agency has directed its efforts to the promotion of green spaces.
Exothermic materials
As early as 2018, Davao City passed an ordinance requiring permeable pavements for car parking, walkways, open spaces, and low-traffic roads. A survey on existing permeable pavements in Davao City affirmed a reduction in “urban heat effect,” especially during hot or dry seasons.
The same has yet to be implemented and mainstreamed in Metro Manila.
Using permeable pavers and cooling pavements, which are designed to reflect more sunlight and release heat more efficiently, can help lower surface temperatures and reduce heat transfer to workers. They can also help mitigate flooding in Metro Manila by allowing rainwater to infiltrate the ground, reducing runoff, and restoring groundwater supplies.
Green roofs and walls with permeable surfaces also enable evaporative cooling. These are mostly seen or adopted by private entities.
Urban forests
Metro Manila has four urban forests left. Three of four are protected areas.
The 2.2-hectare Arroceros Forest Park, dubbed “Manila’s last lung” because it is the city’s only remaining urban forest, recorded temperatures three to five degrees Celsius lower than surrounding areas or the rest of the metro. In 2020, the city declared it a permanent forest park, withdrawing it from any offer of sale or development.
Likewise, the 6.8-hectare Pasig Rainforest Park was declared a permanent forest park in 2023 and was renamed Maybunga Rainforest Park.
Quezon City has two urban forests. However, one has lost its protected area status. Almost half of the 22-hectare UP Arboretum will be given up for constructing a branch of the national university hospital. Construction of on-site relocation for the long-time residents in nearby communities is currently underway.
Meanwhile, many businesses and non-governmental organizations contribute to greening programs in La Mesa Ecopark, a nearly 2,700-hectare forest and watershed area known as Metro Manila’s “last ecological frontier.”
National government agencies and local government units continue to address heat exposure mitigation. However, greening efforts are limited by privatized open spaces or are losing out to repurposing natural environments for development.
More women platform riders despite tough challenges
Gender stereotypes are outdated, “hindi na uso,” says Maricar, especially when the situation comes down to the family’s survival.
Gender stereotypes on the job were the least of the concerns of the lady riders interviewed. They take pride in being women in a male-dominated workforce and passing the skills test on the ride-hailing apps, while some men would fail them.
“Women also get more tips from customers. I usually get back my gas and food expenses from tips. It is either they are in awe of us or pity us for working a very physically demanding job,” said Marivic.
However, some customers, primarily males, cancel the bookings when they see the assigned rider is a woman. Sometimes, the lady riders have arrived at the pickup location, but the customers still cancel the booking. This amounts to lost time or efforts that most app platforms, except for one, do not compensate the driver for. This has become one irksome disadvantage of women platform riders.
Anna encountered a customer who would have liked to cancel the booking when he found out his driver was a woman. She inquired why, and he said it was embarrassing for his gender and his size to ride with a lady driver.
Another customer told her it was to avoid running the risk of being accused of sexual harassment. There is also the accidental or involuntary male body’s response to proximity with a woman, the customer explained to her.
“If our bodies touched, I would know if I am being taken advantage of sexually, if the unwanted touch was accidental or done on purpose,” Anna informed her customer.
Even with such awareness, sexual harassment remains one of the risks of the job for motorcycle taxi riders.
When asked for needed improvements in their work, the lady riders are reluctant to answer, or initially say everything’s okay–”kinakaya pa naman [can still handle it].”
The lady riders are aware of fellow riders’ complaints about low fares, slow bookings, working in extreme weather conditions, lack of medical assistance, imposed lowering of fare rates over time, high commission rates, and app commission on tips.
Companies also implement strict suspension rules. For example, three-day suspensions in food delivery apps may arise if the rider needs to return the food to the merchant because the customer did not respond, or if it is a fake booking. Despite some having appeal mechanisms, the rider would still suffer lost work hours or days.
However, they almost consider these as the “givens” of the job since they are considered freelancers or independent contractors.
Also being the unconventional gender in this line of work, the lady riders seem less likely to want to raise complaints. They enter the job knowing it’s seen as a traditional male job. So, wanting to work this job for flexibility and more income, they take all the difficulties in stride. This is also so as not to be perceived as “whiners” or “iyakin”, as Marivic calls riders who “complain all the time.” She would go as far as to say that women are the preferred sex in the job.
Still, they acknowledge that much needs to be done to improve lady riders’ working conditions.
Regular grievances include querulous passengers who usually ask them to drive faster than they deem safe. Another typical concern is the weight of the load they carry; the heavier it is, the harder it is for them to manage the ride. Getting unruly or drunk passengers would not be a problem if they could only decline the booking without any cost to them, and they would not get into arguments with the customer.
Also, despite occasional recruitment drives for women riders, there are barely any incentives to encourage women to stay in the job. Maricar shared that the platform offered a lower 12% commission rate (the average is 20% deducted from the rider’s earnings) for women, but it lasted only a week.
The risk of accidents also weighs heavier on the women riders, who are simultaneously homemakers and breadwinners.
Falling victim to crimes or being preyed on for being an easier target is a common fear, which is why most of them avoid working at night.
Addressing the rising heat index and heat exhaustion may also contribute to whether the number of women riders increases and whether they will last in this job.
“When it’s too hot, and I feel my chest constricting, I stop immediately. I move to the side. I stop as long as I need to. My children are still young and need me to be healthy,” said Genevieve.
While there is no official count, the lady riders interviewed observed that the number of women riders continues to increase.
Marivic shared that there were only 50 lady riders in her ride-hailing platform when she started two years ago, inferring from a Women’s Month activity the company hosted for lady riders. This year, more than 500 women attended a similar activity.
Meanwhile, there is no available information on the retention rate of women in this job.
“How long will I last in this job? That’s the same question I ask myself,” Lalyn laughed.
She is looking forward to 10 more years working as a motorcycle taxi rider before retiring to open a small business, such as a sari-sari store, or to do online selling.
“Until my children finish their schooling,” was her serious answer.
Genevieve has a similar answer.
“Until my body can handle it. Until my children finish college,” she said.
Her eldest child will enter Grade 6 and the youngest will be in Grade 1 this coming school year.
“I’ll be here a long time,” she mused.
The work is hard, but they still choose to do this so long as they can provide for their family.
— with reports from Roy Barbosa and Agatha Rabino. Photos by Czyrene Farrales and Rafael Mendoza.
Reporting for this story was supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network
