23rd November 2022 – (Hong Kong) The on-demand delivery platform Zeek was accused of being in arrears of service fees and salaries. A labour union, together with the couriers and a member of the Legislative Council, Kwok Wai-keung held a press conference today (23rd). Some of the platform’s couriers complained that they were owed more than HK$100,000. A few were forced to borrow money from friends to get by.
In response to the inquiry, the MPFA stated that it had contacted the MPF trustee of the company involved in the incident and confirmed that Zeek was in arrears with the MPF contributions for October this year, involving about HK$149,800. A total of 65 employees were affected. The outstanding contributions will be recovered on behalf of the affected employees, including possible consideration of legal claims.
Zeek spokesperson responded today and said that additional time is needed to rectify the issues and the service fee is slightly delayed. According to the company’s latest announcement on the service fee payment cycle on 18th November, the delay is about 3 weeks, and the self-employed courier partners will be affected. There are about several hundred of them and the amount ranges from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. The service fee for August has been fully paid, and the service fee for the remaining cycle has been processed successively. He also actively communicated with individual couriers and promised to rectify the issues. Legislative Councillor Kwok Wai-keung pointed out that the company has been delaying salaries persistently and strongly condemned its action. The company deliberately relies on partnership contracts to make it difficult for the service staff to recover their salaries. They will file a case with the Labour Department as soon as possible, and require the authorities to provide assistance to the victims.