A Manila congressman has expressed his disappointment with multinational technology company Grab, which has confirmed that a number of local employees of its ride-hailing company will be affected by its announced mass layoffs.
Manila 2nd District Rep. Rolando M. Valeriano reacted with grave concern over the news that Grab, which operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, will undergo a regional restructuring to its parent firm.
Grab, however, said the restructuring would have no impact on its commitment to the government to provide livelihood opportunities to 500,000 Filipinos.
Valeriano, the House Metro Manila Development Committee chairman, said: “In a position that Grab submitted to us in Congress and in a letter to the Department of Transportation, the company boasted of its commitment to provide livelihood to thousands of Filipinos but a few months thereafter, announce a mass lay off?”
The congressman called for a warning to be given to the publicly-listed company because of a number of actions he branded as “wanton business decisions.”
“The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) had penalized Grab a couple of times already. Our Congressional committee is already looking into other possible errors Grab may have committed in price-surging as the sole TNVS (transport network vehicle service) player, as well as in acquiring Move It, a motorcycle taxi fleet,” Valeriano added.
The Manila solon also disclosed that the committee is looking at other possible violations Grab may have committed, such as creative charging in its digital platform that offers a host of other businesses, including some form of “banking” by way of its e-wallet, money transfer, and payment services through GrabPay.
“What is frustrating to us in Congress is the fact that Grab, in many ways snubbed our efforts to clarify details or the reasons behind some of its actions under the cloak of it being a US publicly listed company,” he said.
“Just imagine, in our past hearings, Grab representatives were reluctant to attend and when they finally sent their legal team, they evaded the the lines of questioning, saying that the lawyers were not privy to Grab operations,” Valeriano said.
In a statement, Grab Philippines country head Grace Vera-Cruz said: “The Philippines has always been an important market for Grab. We remain steadfast in our promise to create 500,000 livelihood opportunities in the Philippines and will continue to make progress on this by creating meaningful opportunities for everyday Filipinos and small businesses to earn a livelihood on our platform, whether as a driver-partner, delivery partner, or merchant partner.”
“Grab is committed to equipping them with tools, training, and technology to be more productive,” she said, noting that since Grab was launched in the Philippines in 2012, the platform had created income opportunities for millions of micro-entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises.