Hardworking delivery workers deserve hongbao

The Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, falls on Feb 17 this year. As the country prepares for its most important holiday festival of the year, the giving of hongbao, or gift money put in red envelops, remains a cherished Chinese tradition. Today, many people gift hongbao through mobile wallets such as WeChat.

Hongbao is usually given by elders to younger people and by business owners to their employees, its red color symbolizing good luck. But there is one group that also deserves this gesture of goodwill: China's delivery workers who work hard, or too hard in my view, to make our lives easier. I don't think any other country can match China's efficiency in online shopping and food delivery.

I say this both in a positive sense for their remarkable efficiency, but also as criticism for the harsh working conditions imposed on them by companies and, at times, by customers.

Xiao Yin, a young man from East China's Anhui province, was the first person to receive my hongbao this year because I will be away for three weeks and won't see him during the Spring Festival. When I asked whether he will go home for the holidays, he nodded, then in a low but emotional voice told me that he will quit his job and not return to the city.

Despite working 12 hours a day, he said it's very difficult to earn a decent income. It was already 7:30 pm when he delivered a package to my home on Wednesday. I saw him coming to the neighborhood one morning with a mountain of parcels stacked on his moped trailer.

His company, SF Express, one of the largest logistics companies in the country, does not pay for his social security. Although several major online shopping platforms pledged after the Spring Festival last year to provide social security benefits to their employees, the reality is quite different. Only a fraction of the employees is covered.

Delivering parcels is a high-risk job. Speeding, running the red lights and riding the wrong way are common in many Chinese cities due to the pressure of time. China has a massive army of nearly 10 million delivery workers. And there were thousands of traffic accidents involving delivery workers in 2023, nearly half of them caused by riding in the wrong direction. Cities like Shanghai have tried to clamp down on such traffic violations.

I do not condone the violation of traffic rules. However, the extreme pressure put on the delivery men by their companies and customers is a major reason for this chaos. Even a one-minute delay, or customer complaint, legitimate or not, would likely result in a hefty penalty on the worker by the company.

In China, social security includes pension insurance, medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance. Today, many delivery workers still don't have pension or medical insurance.

Apart from the delivery workers, many migrant workers in ride-hailing businesses or foot massage parlors still do not enjoy the social security benefits from their employers.

In March 2023, Wang Feng, a deputy to the National People's Congress and a delivery worker turned manager at a branch of SF Express in Hubei, called for designating a national "delivery men day" to honor those working in the fast-growing industry. It was a brilliant idea.

Giving hongbao to delivery workers is a way to show appreciation for the hard work they put in to make our lives convenient. More importantly, it is an outcry for improving their working conditions and labor rights that they rightly deserve in today's China.

There should be more pressure on employers to implement relevant national laws on social security benefits. The big online shopping platforms should honor their pledges made a year ago.

I wish China's delivery workers good luck in the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Horse, as symbolized by hongbao.

The author is a China Daily columnist.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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