THE Cebu City Council will summon the officials of Grab, a company that offers food delivery as one of its services, after they reportedly banned their 100 drivers for reasons not yet known to the drivers.
However, the drivers had a theory behind their dismissal—they availed themselves of a promo that Grab extended to a food shop in June 2021.
City Councilor Niña Mabatid revealed the drivers’ plight in a privilege speech during the City Council regular session on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021.
Mabatid said the drivers were banned from the Grab mobile application last June 28.
“Ang nakasakit kay gibuhat pa gyud ni sa Grab company nga pandemic kaayong dako. Grabe ilang pag-antos karon nga wala gyud silay lain nga pangita (What hurts is that the Grab company resorted to this during a pandemic. They are suffering so much now because they have no other means of livelihood),”Mabatid said.
The drivers said Grab extended a P20 discount to a food shop that specializes in cooking “silog,” a portmanteau of “sinangag (fried rice)” and “itlog (egg),” from June 14 to 17.
They said pancit canton was most ordered food by their customers in Barangays Ermita, Labangon, Sambag 1, Lorega San Miguel and other barangays. An order of pancit canton costs P20 and the customer only needed to pay P1 for the delivery fee, instead of the regular P49 fee as the delivery fee was also on promo.
The drivers said they did not know the reason behind their ban. But they believed that got banned after they availed themselves of the promo. They insisted that they were unable to benefit from the delivery fees because the food they ordered was delivered to them by other drivers.
A driver for Grab food delivery service deposits at least P1,000, which will be deducted if a customer orders food. After delivering the order to the customer, the customer pays the amount of the food item, including the minimum P49 delivery fee. The driver keeps P40, while Grab gets P9 as it operates the mobile application utilized by the drivers.
The 100 drivers want to go back to work for Grab.
Reporters covering the City Hall tried to communicate with the Grab management, but they failed to get a statement.
Mabatid said before she brought the drivers’ problem to the City Council, she had reached out to the Grab management, which she said did not cooperate with her. (PAC / KAL)