FAST-FOOD chain Chowking has addressed a viral video of its female service crew member in Davao City who was seen taking orders from a customer outside the store premises to meet her “quota.”
In a TikTok video shared by a netizen, the worker who was part of Chowking SM Ecoland was apparently told to walk around the area to look for customers because their store was “doing slow and sales are small.” The employee had a quota of P6,000.
In response to the video, Chowking assured that they are “treating this matter seriously” and said that it is now reviewing whether the outside-of-store order-taking activity of the branch complied with the fast-food chain’s standards.
The viral clip showed the worker being asked if she was “required to walk far and find customers,” to which she responded affirmatively and said that she had to “find a way to grow our sales” as a service crew.
It also showed the staff member telling the customer that she would use her own money for fare to punch in and deliver the order to the customer immediately. Asked if she was provided with a transport fare budget, she replied, “Wala po, ma’am.”
The video then narrated that the staff delivered the food to the customer “an hour after getting some orders.” She also had to walk around a subdivision to deliver other orders.
Despite her efforts, the service crew did not meet her quota as she only reached over P2,000 that day.
The fast-food chain put on hold the outside-of-store order-taking activity in the Davao branch, and said that the crew member is still a “valued member of the store.”
“At Chowking, upholding ethical standards in conducting business is a core commitment, and the safety and well-being of our team members remain our top priority,” it said in a statement.
Not isolated
Some netizens who claimed to be former service crew members said that such a practice has existed for some time and that it was not only Chowking doing it.
One X (formerly Twitter) user recalled when he had to conduct “OOT” or “outside order-take” as a crew member of a pizza and pasta chain in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
“We would go to offices, munisipyos, establishments, para lang kumuha ng orders. May target sales din ikaw jan. Part of the job pero, I don’t know. Kung ma-PR ka, panalo. Pero if not, nganga,” he narrated.
Another former staff of the pizza and pasta chain claimed he had the same experience.
“Kainitan ng araw nag iikot kami para makabenta ng pizza. Bukod pa ung tatawagan mo isa isa ung asa records nila,” he shared.
Other netizens also shared the times when they encountered service crew selling food outside the store premises.
“This is not an isolated case. This is also done in the Chowking PITX branch. Someone gets on the bus to sell chao fans,” a netizen said.
Another netizen agreed and said that there were also other Chowking branches outside Metro Manila that had been implementing such tasks.
He called on the fast-food chain to think of other steps that won’t “put minimum wage workers at an inconvenience,” just to meet its quota.
