PLATFORM EMPLOYMENT IN CHINA: PRESENT SITUATION AND REGULATION STRATEGY

IIn recent years, the number of platform-employed personnel in China has generally shown an upward trend, with employment forms becoming increasingly diversified, mainly manifested as independent entrepreneurship, freelance work, part-time employment, and flexible employment by organizations. The employment fields of platform workers are mainly concentrated in the service industry, with a differentiated distribution of the employment groups. From the current situation of labor rights protection for platform workers, the average income is relatively high but with significant internal differentiation and weak bargaining power; during the work process, low rights protection is exchanged for high income; the coverage rate of various social insurances is low, with limited participation channels, and the pilot of occupational injury protection has made good progress; the union participation rate is low, and some platform-employed workers use non-institutional means to protect their rights. The main reasons are the difficulty in identifying labor relations, the social security system is hard to match with the employment model of platform workers, and traditional regulatory methods are not adapted to the platform business model. In terms of the regulation of labor rights protection for platform workers, at the legal policy level, the government initially regulated platform enterprises mainly through industry regulation. Recently, various labor rights protection policies have been introduced successively, and pilot reforms for the occupational injury insurance system for new forms of employment workers have begun. At the collective level, the Trade Union Law has been amended, and guidance has been issued. At the industry and enterprise level, industry enterprises have strengthened self-discipline, taken the initiative to assume corresponding social responsibilities, supplemented the insufficiency of social insurance through commercial insurance, adjusted algorithms and regulations, and provided various employee care services, etc. The following measures are recommended: strengthen standardized guidance and promote sustainable development through multiple measures; deepen market reforms to maximize the development of employment resources and opportunities; clarify the identification of labor relationships; strengthen the protection of workers’ basic rights; improve trade union guarantees for workers’ rights; and enhance government public services.