Labor Rights and Insurance for Gig Workers

Introduction:
In mid-2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other ministries issued a voluminous series of guidance and opinions on the regulation of employment in the platform economy. Effectively safeguarding the labor rights and interests of workers in novel forms of employment, and promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy will inform the direction of legislation and policies in this area. Those with employment relationships in the new economy are included in the scope of its protection; those who do not fully satisfy the criteria necessary for establishing an employee relationship, but are nevertheless supervised by platforms will also enjoy part of the rights and interests guaranteed by labor law. These rights include the right to fair employment, minimum wage and wage payment, rest and vacation, occupational safety and health protection, social insurance, and the right to collective bargaining.
Theoretically speaking, the corpus of rights in labor law has undergone a breakthrough as its scope widens to include new business groups that do not fully conform to the features of traditional labor relationships. An examination of the intersection between personal preferences and economic dependencies as they relate to labor rights should serve as a natural starting point to reevaluate our understanding of the fundamental goal of labor protection and on this basis, build a labor and social protection system in the age of the platform economy.
Speaker:
Yu Lou
Professor of the School of Civil, Commercial and Economic Law, China University of Political Science and Law, and Director of the Institute of Social Law. His research focuses on labor, social security law, and public policy. In recent years, his main focus has been on the legal supervision and regulation of platform employment. Currently presides over a key project in conjunction with the National Social Science Fund "Research on the Construction of the Social Security Legal Regime for Gig-Workers in the Platform Economy".
Discussant:
Xuduo Meng
Xuduo Meng received his Ph.D. in economics and is a senior researcher focused on Meituan's legal policy. his main research areas are platform employment, the labour market, labour relations and labour law. In recent years, he has integrated his research with corporate practices, actively promoted the development of Chinese platform employment and new employment patterns, and participated in the exploration of new platform employment relations and labor security measures within the Chinese context.
Chair:
Dr. Angela Zhang, Director of the Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong