Amid a labour shift that has pushed millions of jobseekers to online platforms, greater protections are being promised for some temporary workers.
In quick succession, three major online platforms in China – JD.com, Meituan and Ele.me – have unveiled plans to provide social insurance to their food-delivery couriers after years of being urged by the central government to enhance welfare coverage for the nation’s gig workers.
The moves to improve labour protections in the nation’s rapidly expanding gig economy come amid an economic slowdown and accelerated transition to a digital economy in recent years. And a corresponding rise in unemployment, particularly among the youngest workers, has pushed millions to online platforms.
Roughly 200 million gig workers now make a living from temporary jobs that do not offer traditional employment contracts and associated benefits.
JD.com, the e-commerce giant that ventured into the food-delivery sector earlier this month, will gradually introduce China’s five types of social insurance and housing-fund benefits for its full-time delivery riders from March 1. Part-time riders will also receive accident insurance, as well as medical coverage.
In a statement on Wednesday, JD.com boasted that it was the first platform to offer such benefits to food-delivery riders. But on Thursday, Alibaba Group’s Ele.me delivery platform said it had been piloting social insurance programmes for its delivery riders in seven cities and provinces for the past year. Ele.me also took the opportunity to announce an expansion of work-injury insurance coverage to more regions.
Ele.me also said it “has invested more than 200 million yuan (US$27.5 million) to strengthen the protection of riders’ rights and interests” in the past year.
Following JD.com’s statement on Wednesday, Meituan, which dominates around 70 per cent of China’s food-delivery market, similarly announced a social insurance programme to cover “full-time and stable part-time riders”, starting from the second quarter of this year.
While Meituan’s announcement did not specify the number of riders to be covered, the platform’s previously unveiled data showed that it had 7.45 million riders in 2023, with 11 per cent working for more than 260 days per year.
Meituan also said that, under the guidance of key government agencies such as the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, it has conducted 421 consultations with delivery riders to incorporate their feedback into algorithmic optimisation and initiatives to protect labour rights.
Workers' rights are an important aspect of the regulation of digital platforms in China, and competent agencies, including the anti-monopoly authority SAMR and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), have repeatedly urged major platforms to establish mechanisms to protect the rights of couriers, drivers, etc., and ensure that they are guaranteed decent working conditions.
In September 2020, Chinese magazine Renwu (People) published an exposé titled “Delivery Riders, Trapped in the Algorithm”, shedding light on how these workers were being endangered by algorithms employed by apps to dictate routes and allowable travel times.
It also showed the intricate network of outsourcing companies and labour agencies, which collectively establish a system that prioritises flexibility for platforms while shifting risks and responsibilities onto the riders.
With the report sparking an intense nationwide discussion, platforms vowed to reform their algorithms and strengthen labour protections.
And in 2021, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which answers to the Communist Party and is the only legal labour union in China, accused big technology platforms of exploiting workers.
Also that year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued guidance on labour-right protections for the “new form of employment”, referring to gig workers on online platforms, including delivery riders and e-hailing drivers. It called for minimum wages, reasonable working hours, and the establishment of a protection system for occupational injuries or accidents.
A couple of months later, a justice with the Supreme People’s Court, China’s top judiciary, clarified labour rules for such employees in a bid to strike a balance between protecting gig workers and not hampering the development of tech platforms.
The statement offered relief to platform operators after the government expanded protections for delivery workers and ride-hailing drivers.
Source: SCMP
