Protect workers' rights in new forms of employment

The Supreme People's Court released its first batch of guiding cases on labor disputes in new forms of employment on Monday. They involve express delivery personnel and online news anchors and focus on deciding the labor relations that legally exist between enterprises and laborers in new forms of employment.

With the platform economy booming, new forms of employment are playing an important role in stabilizing growth and employment. However, because of the flexibility in management methods, working hours and payment, many new kinds of labor disputes are arising, which are often outside the purview of the judiciary, making it difficult to settle them.

In the past five years, courts nationwide have handled about 420,000 civil disputes involving new forms of employment, which is why the Supreme Court released the set of guiding cases to protect the legitimate rights of workers and ensure the healthy and orderly development of the platform economy.

In July 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and seven other departments released a joint document saying that if conditions are met for establishing a labor relationship, enterprises should sign labor contracts with workers according to the law. However, in practice, some enterprises ask workers to register as "individual business proprietors" and sign cooperation or contracting agreements. So, when problems arise, they deny any role as employer, saying the two sides are in a cooperation.

In one of the guiding cases, No 237, a contracting company and a contracted laborer had a dispute on whether a labor relationship exists between them. The court ruled that it does, considering that there is the fact of employment. Further, even if a labor relationship is not recognized, as is often the case with platform companies, as long as the enterprise exercises a certain degree of labor management, it should legally protect the rights and interests of the workers.

According to a survey by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, there are currently 84 million workers in new forms of employment in China. Whether the legitimate rights and interests of flexible employees can be protected through legal means concerns not only stable employment and people's livelihood but also major contemporary issues such as industrial iteration and economic transformation.