Ruling favors flex worker in labor dispute

A ruling by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has come down on the side of an injured deliveryman, who had been denied compensation due to the flexible nature of his employment contract.

In a recently published case, the food deliveryman, surnamed Xu, was injured during a delivery in November 2019. He requested both the freight forwarder — who contracted a food delivery management station from a platform — and the labor services company responsible for the station's operation and personnel recruitment, to provide medical compensation.

The two companies refused Xu's request, claiming that he did not directly work for them under contract.

However, the ministry's labor arbitration committee ruled that Xu did have labor relations with the freight forwarder from July to December in 2019, as the company included him in routine management such as checking work attendance and paying him monthly wages based on his performance.

Shen Jianfeng, a professor from the law school of the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, said that business and labor outsourcing is commonly used in the flexible employment sector.

In Xu's case, the food delivery platform outsourced a management station to the freight forwarder, and the freight forwarder outsourced labor recruitment and management to a labor services company. However, the freight forwarder became Xu's real "manager" by including him in the company's routine management and paying him a salary, even though in reality the company was not responsible for personnel management.

"It's necessary to make clear the interested parties of labor relations and make the judgment based on reality, rather than rigidly adhere to pro forma contracts that do not conform to reality," he said.

The human resources ministry said that it will continue to cooperate with the Supreme People's Court to enhance supervision of labor disputes involving platform-based flexible workers to improve the group's legal protection and guide them to protect their rights more rationally, as well as to ensure the platforms use labor in accordance with regulations and laws.

Lin Jia, a professor from the law school of Renmin University of China in Beijing, said that the latest wave of technological and industrial revolutions has had a great effect on society in terms of production and living styles, under which some new industries have grown to be new drivers of economic development and have incubated new forms of employment.

The flexibility of labor, work management and pay has also posed challenges to the legal definitions of labor relations, she said.

The latest figures from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions show that more than 84 million people have flexible jobs offered by platforms, and in the past few years, the central government has worked to improve their protection.

For example, the newly amended trade union law in 2021 clarifies that flexible workers have the right to join or organize trade unions. Eight central departments including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport released a guideline in July 2021 to enhance supervision of labor relations between companies and flexible workers.

Lin said that employment is the most important livelihood, and labor relations is one of the most basic and important social relations. She suggested the nation build a multi-level labor rights protection system covering more workers to suit the development of platform-based flexible employment, and to push forward more humane labor relations for the common prosperity of all workers.