Baemin reported just 3% of rider accidents over 6 years
The company’s logistics unit reported only 283 workplace accidents to labor authorities despite 9,628 recognized injury claims, highlighting a reporting loophole for freelance delivery riders.
Motorbikes are seen at a delivery center for food delivery platform Baemin, also known as Baedal Minjok, in Seoul on Dec. 29, 2020.YONHAP
Food delivery app Baedal Minjok’s operator reported only about 3 percent of its workers’ compensation claims for on-the-job accidents to the labor ministry over the past six years, a gap critics blame on a loophole that leaves delivery riders outside mandatory accident reporting rules.
Employees and freelance delivery workers at Woowa Youths, the logistics subsidiary of Woowa Brothers, which operates the delivery app Baedal Minjok, or Baemin, had 9,628 industrial accident claims approved from 2021 through August this year, according to Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service data released Monday by Democratic Party Rep. Lee Yong-woo.
However, the company, over the same period, submitted only 283 industrial accident investigation reports — detailing the cause of an accident and measures to prevent a recurrence — to regional labor offices. Just 54 of those reports involved delivery workers.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, an employer must submit the report within one month when a worker dies or suffers an injury requiring at least three days off work. Failing to do so carries a fine of up to 15 million won ($11,000), and concealing an industrial accident is punishable by up to one year in prison. But because delivery riders are independent contractors rather than employees under the Labor Standards Act, companies face no penalty for leaving their injuries unreported.
The reports the company did file largely attributed accidents to external factors such as bad weather and failure to wear protective gear, or to worker carelessness, according to an analysis by Lee’s office. In one case, a rider surnamed Seo was injured last December when he slipped on an icy road while delivering hamburgers by motorcycle, after swerving to avoid a vehicle making a U-turn that he had failed to notice in time. The prevention plans submitted were similarly perfunctory, listing measures such as “checking road surface conditions and motorcycle products and their condition when riding in winter, and conducting safety training while riding.”
A Baedal Minjok, known as Baemin, rider delivers takeout food.NEWS1
Critics say the root problem of rider accidents lies in how platforms manage riders through algorithms that dispatch orders, set delivery deadlines and rate performance. A study commissioned by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in January on hazards and risk factors facing delivery workers found that those time limits and performance evaluations increased risky behavior among riders, including running red lights, speeding and using mobile phones while riding.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Act must be urgently revised to clearly impose a duty on platform operators and others to report industrial accidents even when freelance workers such as delivery riders are killed or injured,” said Lee. “In addition, fundamental measures to improve working conditions, such as introducing a minimum pay system, must be swiftly prepared to structurally reduce accidents caused by algorithmic pressure.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
