Hungry Panda food delivery company under scrutiny over riders’ insurance, failure to report death to SafeWork NSW

Food delivery firm Hungry Panda delivery riders are required to have their own insurance, but the company says it does not check if the policies are valid, an inquiry has heard.

Hungry Panda’s Human Resources Manager Tina Sun revealed the company employed 100 to 150 delivery riders a day in Sydney.

But a NSW Parliamentary Select Committee hearing investigating safety in the gig economy was told Hungry Panda paid just $3,000 a year in workers’ compensation premiums.

Ms Sun said this covered the 25 employees in the Sydney office but not the delivery riders, who she said were employed not as workers but as “independent contractors”.

“We require them to have their own insurance,” she told the inquiry.

“We collect the certificates,…