Shopee Indonesia denies claims of underpaid in-house couriers going on strike

Shopee Indonesia denies claims that couriers from Shopee Express, its in-house logistics arm, went on strike in protest of recent adjustments to their fee schedule, leading to delivery delays.

Handhika Jahja, Shopee Indonesia’s executive director, said in a statement that Shopee Express operations are ongoing as per the normal schedule. While some consumers did experience delays in the past week, they were caused by a hike in orders from Shopee’s 4.4 Mega Shopping Day promotion.

He also claimed that Shopee Express’ rates for couriers were “competitive” in the industry.

A Shopee Express courier holds a sign encouraging customers to shop from home during the pandemic. / Photo credit: Shopee

Shopee customers in Indonesia have taken to social media in the last few days to speak about experiencing delivery delays. One customer reached out to her courier who claimed that Shopee Express couriers were on strike. The customer then proceeded to upload the text exchange on Twitter.

The reason for the alleged strike appeared to be Shopee Express’ adjustment to its courier incentives. From this month onward, a courier in the Jakarta area would earn a daily rate of 115,000 rupiah (US$7.84) for their first 40 parcels plus 1,800 rupiah (US$0.12) for every parcel after that point.

A Shopee Express courier told Kompas that the initial per-parcel fee had been 5,000 rupiah (US$0.34), and that the fee had been adjusted 4x within the past year.

With the current amounts, the courier claims that on average, they would earn about 150,000 rupiah (US$10.23) to deliver 50 to 60 parcels. Assuming the couriers work 24 days a month, that would come to 3.6 million rupiah (US$246) – slightly below Jakarta’s minimum wage of about 4.4 million rupiah (US$301).

That number also does not factor in gas, which couriers are expected to pay for.

That said, Jahja claimed that on average, a Shopee Express courier in the Greater Jakarta area could deliver 80 parcels a day, which would earn them 2,213 rupiah (US$0.15) per parcel. This number was higher than what other logistics services would offer at 1,700 to 2,000 rupiah (US$0.12 to US$0.14), he said.

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1 = 14,653.40 rupiah