Workers for food delivery app Hungry Panda have slammed a new bonus system as impossible to achieve, fearing it'll encourage riders to take more risks on the road.

The UK-based company recently cut its rates of pay, prompting a backlash from delivery riders and the Transport Workers Union over wages and conditions.

7.30 can reveal the terms of the new system, which the company said was designed to offset a reduction in the base rate.

"Rather than taking a straight pay cut out of everyone, it's about incentivising the high-performing drivers," Hungry Panda strategy vice-president Panwen Chen told 7.30.

At the lower end, riders can earn an extra $15 if they deliver 25 orders a day, while at the upper end, riders can attract a bonus of $65 if they deliver 70 orders a day.

But by 7.30's calculations, even if a rider worked a 10-hour day they would have to deliver seven orders an hour to earn the $65 bonus.

Each delivery involves waiting for the order to be prepared by the restaurant and the travel time between the restaurant and the customer, making it unclear how the bonus could be achieved.

Riders face more pressure to take risks

A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry is investigating Hungry Panda and other food delivery apps over the deaths of five riders in Sydney and Melbourne within two months last year.

The committee chair and Labor MP, Daniel Mookhey, told 7.30 the bonus system was "illusory", and would put more pressure on riders to travel faster.

"To get a $65 bonus, you have to make 70 deliveries a day. That's physically impossible. It's a joke," he said.

"Hungry Panda is providing an economic incentive for riders to ride unsafely."

A former Hungry Panda rider also told 7.30 the bonus system was unachievable.

"The system is putting enormous pressure on riders," said Xiangqian Li, a rider who has made an unfair dismissal claim against the company.

"You'd be so exhausted you couldn't get out of bed. The orders are exhausting enough."

Mr Chen defended the system, saying the app was designed for high-density areas where Chinese and Asian communities lived close to eateries.

"If a driver can get all the short distance orders, they will be able to achieve that," Mr Chen told 7.30.

"And I'm pretty sure we have drivers that have achieved that."

When asked by 7.30 how many riders had achieved the $65 bonus, Mr Chen did not have the numbers available.

Hungry Panda apologises

Mr Chen also revealed Hungry Panda has apologised to the workplace safety regulator in New South Wales, SafeWork, after failing to promptly report the death of Sydney rider Xiaojun Chen in September 2020.

The 43-year-old was hit by a bus while delivering food, leaving behind a widow in China.

It emerged in the NSW inquiry that Hungry Panda HR manager Tina Sun attended the hospital, but was unaware that the company had to, by law, notify SafeWork about the death.

Mr Chen said the death was reported to SafeWork days later.

"It was unfortunate that we didn't report that on time," he said.

"The incident itself was a traumatic environment where certain paperwork were overlooked."