“The charge and replacement fee of 300 yuan per month and the accident insurance premium of 150 yuan can make an electric car take out.”
Gao Hu, born in 1991, worked in a brand beverage factory in his hometown of Liaoning before coming to Beijing. He once earned 4000 yuan a month.
“The income here is higher than that in my hometown, and the threshold is also lower. I’ve also seen people with disabilities such as the deaf mute come to deliver takeout. Anyone can earn more and less.” Take out rider Gao Hu said.
Not only Gao Hu, according to the latest figures disclosed by the National Bureau of statistics, by the end of 2021, China had 200 million flexible employees, including about 13 million takeout riders, accounting for nearly 1% of the national population base.
Flexible employment forms such as takeout riders have expanded the employment capacity and played a role as a reservoir. At the same time, the topic of social security for relevant groups has also been discussed continuously. There is no “five insurances and one fund”, lack of insurance security, repeated and no growth labor, unclear follow-up career development path and no promotion channel… In the view of experts, the relationship between flexible employees and platform enterprises exists in many forms, such as labor dispatch, contracting, agency, etc. Labor relations are complex, and platform enterprises bear different social security responsibilities. Therefore, at present, the protection of the rights and interests of new employees has become the most difficult problem to solve.
In recent years, relevant state departments have paid constant attention to the protection of the labor rights and interests of relevant groups, clearly put forward the standardized employment and clarify the responsibility for protecting the rights and interests of workers; Improve the system and make up for the shortcomings in the protection of workers’ rights and interests; Improve efficiency and optimize workers’ rights and interests protection services. However, maintaining the labor rights and interests of flexible employment groups is complex and must keep pace with the times. It also needs to be promoted by the platform and relevant departments.
riders are the “hands and feet” of platform economy, and “reservoirs” may lead to unfair competition
In July 2021, Gao Hu became a “take out rider”. In Gao Hu’s opinion, he was specially sent by the American troupe. His working hours were flexible and free, and his salary was higher than that of his hometown. “From 10:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 21:00, you must be online. You can control yourself in other periods. You can run more than 40 orders every day and earn more than 9000 yuan a month. Previously, you earned more than 4000 yuan a month in your hometown. Dry takeout earns more than the factory.”
Flexibility and freedom of work is a major reason why many people work as takeout riders. Liu Hua, who was born in 1981 in Miyun, Beijing, used to be a salesperson in a home store. He chose to take out six months ago. He also liked the simplicity and freedom of this industry. “There are too many meetings and rules in the mall, so we have to choose the side to stand in line, and finally come to meituan takeout to run the team list.”
Higher income than their hometown has also attracted many people to Beijing to join the army of takeout riders. Born in 2001, Liu Yi once worked as a KTV night service in his hometown of Hebei before running hungry. “The main reason is that the salary in my hometown is too low, which is only more than 4000 yuan a month. So I come to Beijing for takeout. After all, this job is flexible and free.”
This job also gives many people a chance to live a short-term transition. Xu hang, born in 2003, is from Chongqing. He is about to graduate from higher vocational education this year. He is in the internship period. He feels that the living cost of the internship post arranged by the school is too high. In addition, he is not interested in his major. He heard that the takeout industry makes more money, so he wants to experience the work of takeout rider.
Crowdsourcing is more free than special delivery. Li Jian said that the advantage of crowdsourcing is that it can work more flexibly. “For example, if there are no elevators in nearby communities, I won’t take orders for high-rise buildings directly, so I don’t have to climb buildings at all at the end of the day.”. He also said that if I am used to crowdsourcing riders, I can’t stand the constraints. I can rest at any time when it’s windy and rainy. Special riders may have to go to work, and I must be online at the peak of afternoon and evening.
The inclusiveness of the profession has continuously expanded the scale of takeout riders. According to the data such as meituan’s financial report, the total number of riders earning income through meituan’s platform increased from more than 2.2 million in 2017 to 5.27 million in 2021. There are far more people, including new employees such as takeout riders and express brothers. According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, China’s flexible employment has reached 200 million by the end of 2021.
Flexible employment can be seen everywhere. Li Zhiqi, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese people’s Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of industry and Commerce and chairman of the revitalization international think tank, believes that “flexible employment groups such as takeout riders are direct practitioners of the platform economy, the most important front-line executives of the platform economy and the hands and feet of the platform economy. Without them, the platform as the brain can not operate, and their importance is beyond doubt.”
58 Li Yan, President of the same city recruitment Research Institute, told the shell finance reporter of the Beijing news that flexible employment belongs to a new flexible employment mode. Whether it is the flexibility of workers’ time and quantity, employment form or management mode, it has reduced the threshold of the concept of “employment”, widened the scope of employment and can attract more workers. Flexible employment provides more choices for further deepening public employment and entrepreneurship.
According to the report of pulse “talent flow and migration 2022”, more than half of workers want to “earn extra money” by using professional skills. Wang Qian, co-founder of pulse, said that in terms of flexible employment, freelancing does not belong to any organization and has high flexibility in working time and place, which is conducive to ensuring the balance of work and life and carrying out various career development and life experience.
From the perspective of employment, flexible employment forms such as takeout riders have expanded the employment capacity and played the role of a reservoir. In terms of the labor market, this part of employment also has the effect of unfair competition, because the tax burden and social security cost borne by platform operators are low, which indirectly leads to inequality with formal employment enterprises; It is also difficult to recruit workers in formal fields.
spiritual worker’s “freedom trap”: only pay work-related injury insurance, with frequent salary disputes
Flexible employment has only the advantage of freedom of work? In fact, Liu Hua found that although the takeout industry is simple and free, it is also facing disrespect. “After receiving the order from the platform, the customer will call me and buy some other goods. If you don’t bring it, you will be complained, and you will have to pay a fine. Some communities will open a special channel for takeout riders, feeling discriminated against.”
In addition to low professional identity, labor rights and interests are not perfect. “Five insurances and one fund should be necessary. There are many people in the profession of take out rider in the country. After working for a few years, what will these people do after they are 40-50 years old? If their family is seriously ill, they can’t even afford the money. Moreover, the probability of traffic accidents is also very high.” Liu Hua believes that the platform has indeed facilitated Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) , and solved many employment problems. However, most of the takeout workers have low education and poor family conditions.
During the interview, the shell finance reporter of the Beijing News learned that at present, takeout riders are mainly divided into special delivery and crowdsourcing. Basically, they do not sign a contract directly with the platform, and are mostly dispatched by third-party companies. Moreover, both special delivery and crowdsourcing takeout riders do not have five insurances and one fund, and generally only pay work-related injury insurance.
Last January, Han, a crowdsourcing rider, died suddenly on the way to deliver takeout. Because he did not directly sign a labor contract with the platform, the platform was only willing to provide humanitarian compensation of 2000 yuan to his family members, which triggered a heated discussion in the society.
The rear platform raised the amount of sudden death protection to Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) yuan. Although the event has long ended, the fate and behind of the takeout rider; The security of flexible employment has become one of the topics of great concern to the public.
Deng Jianbo, founder and CEO of the Youth League agency, a flexible employment recruitment service platform, told the shell finance reporter of the Beijing news that flexible employees are more prone to salary disputes because of their short working cycle and generally do not sign labor contracts, and it is difficult to be supported and handled after disputes. At the same time, in terms of insurance, both individual purchase and enterprise purchase processes are cumbersome, resulting in a low purchase proportion. On the whole, the salary security and life insurance security of flexible employees are relatively general.
An insider of the flexible employment intermediary platform is also rethinking the intermediary model, “Platforms like meituan and Shunfeng can increase employment, so that some people can receive jobs and earn income. However, similar employment intermediary platforms serve (meituan and Shunfeng) platforms, which use the self-employed model to solve (reduce) the personnel employment cost of upstream platforms and damage workers (riders) The way of rights and interests needs to be discussed. The so-called failure to create any jobs refers to these fiscal and tax solution platforms, not meituan and Shunfeng. “
However, Wang Feng wants social security because he has paid social security in the previous work system. Many riders “don’t need” actually “don’t know”. For example, Liu Yigang has only been in contact with this job for more than half a month, and he doesn’t know the unit price and social security of the job. “Just do soon, 9:00 in the morning site regular meeting did not participate, the specific guarantee is not very clear.”
“Many riders will think that after working hard for such a long time, they have deducted so much in a month into the social security account. If they don’t work and can’t find a place to ask for the money, they must be unhappy. It’s better to get all the money directly and feel secure.” Rider Fang Duanxin said that many riders need to see cash, and the platform can basically withdraw cash immediately.
Gao Hu doesn’t pay much attention to this part, but pays more attention to real income. “It’s impossible to work in takeout for a lifetime. The long three or five years and the short one or two years are the transition. For example, if I earn 10000 now, there may be 8000 left after I pay the five insurances and one fund, but I pay the five insurances and one fund for only a few years, which will not be consistent.”
According to the scope of the vice president of the school of labor and economics of Capital University of economics and trade, “At present, most of the flexible employees are not included in the scope of labor law protection, so the relationship between them and the employment platform is adjusted according to the civil legal norms. In practice, the flexible employment groups such as takeout riders do not have much problems in terms of labor remuneration, but the working hours are generally too long; the takeout riders use transportation for a long time, and the safety and security is a problem; in social insurance, the industrial injury insurance is insufficient, and the future will be difficult There will also be problems in medical care and pension. “
new employees’ rights and interests protection is the most difficult to solve, labor relations are unknown, and individuals are under pressure
As mentioned above, the labor relations of flexible employment have been discussed for a long time. “There are many forms of relations between these practitioners and platform enterprises, such as labor dispatch, contracting, agency, etc. labor relations are complex, and platform enterprises bear different social security responsibilities. Therefore, at present, the protection of the rights and interests of new employees has become the most difficult problem to solve.” Li Zhiqi mentioned.
According to the definition of flexible employment in China’s flexible employment development report (2022) of Renmin University of China, in a broad sense, it is an employment arrangement for human resource allocation in a way other than standard employment, which is mainly divided into labor dispatch, business outsourcing, human resource outsourcing, Internet platform employment, traditional odd jobs (part-time employment, part-time employment, daily settlement, self-employed cooperation) and internship.
The report also mentioned that in traditional odd jobs, part-time and daily settlement mostly establish labor relations, and dependent self-employment is mostly cooperative relations. Only part-time employment is defined as labor relations. However, in this employment scenario, enterprises only need to pay industrial injury insurance for part-time workers, and do not need to pay economic compensation when terminating the employment relationship, so the flexibility of employment is high.
The forms of employment included in the employment of Internet platforms are relatively complex. Due to the more involvement of some platforms (and third-party institutions) in production management, workers have strong subordination to the platform (and third-party institutions), and there are substantive labor relations. However, most platform employees belong to the labor / business contracting relationship or the situation that “enterprises do not fully comply with the establishment of labor relations but manage workers”.
58 Li Yan, President of the local recruitment Research Institute, also said, “China’s flexible employment is still in its infancy. Under the circumstances of unclear labor relations and imperfect social security system, social individuals in flexible employment need to bear many pressures and risks. For example, takeout workers may need to face labor disputes in three aspects: platform, merchants and customers at the same time. In addition, there are still deficiencies in employment security and satisfaction, and they can’t be completely independent even in the improvement of employment skills.”
Fortunately, at present, these relations are being clarified. In July 2021, the Ministry of human resources and social security, the all China Federation of trade unions and other eight departments issued the guiding opinions on safeguarding the labor security rights and interests of workers in the new form of employment, which mentioned that if it meets the situation of establishing labor relations, the enterprise should conclude labor contracts with workers according to law. If it does not fully meet the conditions for establishing labor relations, but the enterprise carries out labor management on workers (hereinafter referred to as the conditions for establishing labor relations), guide the enterprise and workers to conclude a written agreement to reasonably determine the rights and obligations of the enterprise and workers. Individuals rely on the platform to independently carry out business activities and engage in freelance work, and adjust the rights and obligations of both parties in accordance with civil laws.
In recent years, relevant departments have also continuously promoted the protection of labor security rights and interests of workers in new forms of employment. During the two sessions of the National People’s Congress in 2022, the government work report also proposed to strengthen flexible employment services, improve flexible employment social security policies, and carry out a pilot of occupational injury protection in new forms of employment.
All localities have also strengthened relevant work. Beijing and other cities, as areas where workers in new employment forms are more concentrated, have also launched many services. Relevant personnel of the Beijing Federation of trade unions told the shell finance reporter of the Beijing news that in September 2021, the Beijing Federation of trade unions issued the implementation plan of the Beijing Federation of trade unions to promote the work of trade unions in new business forms and new employment groups, and introduced 10 measures to give full play to the role of trade unions as a bridge between the party and the working masses and effectively safeguard the labor security rights and interests of new business forms and new employment groups.
Recently, according to relevant personnel of the Beijing Federation of trade unions, since June last year, the Beijing Federation of trade unions has promoted 17 Internet platform leading enterprises such as jd.com, meituan and Didi, and 14 brand express enterprises such as SF and “three links and one Da” to establish trade union organizations, with a total of 274000 workers in new employment forms; More than 9000 outdoor workers’ warm heart post stations have been built in total; Provide five free guarantees such as major diseases and accidental injuries for workers and other groups with new forms of employment.
flexible employment needs to keep pace with the times and properly balance the labor cost with formal employment
As the Ministry of human resources and social security said, in recent years, the platform economy has developed rapidly and created a large number of employment opportunities. The number of new forms of employment workers such as online appointment distributors, online appointment drivers, truck drivers and Internet marketers employed on the Internet platform has increased significantly, and safeguarding the labor security rights and interests of workers is facing new situations and problems.
Dealing with these matters must keep pace with the times. Li Zhiqi believes that flexible employment cannot simply be solved by the platform because of the different labor relationship structure. However, from the perspective of undertaking corporate social responsibility, the platform should guide partners to regulate the labor rights and interests of employed people. At the same time, the new business form has new characteristics, and all parties need to work together to improve relevant systems and laws to protect the legitimate labor rights and interests of all kinds of employed people.
According to the scope, from the perspective of improving the social security of relevant employment groups, we should solve the problem of occupational injury protection for flexible employment groups such as takeout riders and express brothers. Of course, there are preconditions for occupational injury protection. It is necessary to strengthen the protection responsibilities of the platform party in terms of safety production, occupational safety and health in operation and management, including providing corresponding occupational injury protection.
\u3000\u3000 “From the perspective of governing the country according to law, it is necessary to properly balance the labor costs of flexible employment and formal employment. There should not be too great differences in the labor costs of the two forms of employment due to institutional reasons. At present, there are some abnormal phenomena in the employment market, and some employed people give up formal employment and engage in flexible employment because of their immediate economic interests. In the field of social security in the future, flexible employment should also be appropriate Share responsibility. ” Scope mentioned.
“Flash delivery has high unit price and long distance. It earns more than takeout.” Gao Hu revealed that he had offered to leave his job and planned to go for a flash drive. “I can save 6000 yuan a month. After working in Beijing for a few more years, I can go back to the second and third tier cities and pay the down payment to buy a house, marry a wife and have children; I can also drive a truck and live. This occupation is only short-term and has no sense of belonging.”
For many people, becoming a rider is just a transitional career, which also reflects the common problems in flexible employment, that is, the follow-up career development path is unknown and there is no promotion channel.
Li Yan said that to ensure the protection of workers’ rights and interests, the first is to further optimize the three-tier adjustment mode of labor law, reconstruct the functional division of labor law and civil law, and create a more benign and legal environment for the healthy development of flexible employment; Secondly, establish a flexible employment vocational training system to open up more career channels for flexible employees; Finally, improve the occupational social insurance system for flexible employees to provide more employment security for flexible employment groups.
Under the guidance of local human resources and social security departments, according to Liu Xinyang, vice president of hungry Yao, the platform is promoting the vocational skill improvement training of the new business form of “online delivery personnel” all over the country. The courses include handling of abnormal distribution, cleaning and disinfection of lunch boxes, etc. there are both online teaching and practical teaching courses. After the training, you can also receive special government subsidies.
In the second half of 2021, meituan announced the launch of “four measures” to help the professional development of riders, including meituan rider vocational training and further education plan, stationmaster training plan, rider job transfer plan, rider online learning platform and other career development measures. It will provide riders with a full cycle and multi-level career development path, take the initiative to break the existing career development model of riders, and constantly broaden the employment and career selection radius of riders.
In addition, Deng Jianbo believes that scientific and technological forces should be promoted to protect the rights and interests of “odd jobs”. Through HR SaaS system, b-end enterprises can use shift attendance, payroll, electronic contract, employment insurance, talent pool operation, supplier management and other modules online, and C-end users can check in and clock out, pay and get electronic contract and insurance protection.
Recently, the Beijing Federation of trade unions issued the “key points for the Beijing Federation of trade unions to promote workers’ trade unions in new forms of employment in 2022”, which mentioned that it is necessary to organize and build a strong organizational system to ensure that all the top 100 Internet enterprises operating in Beijing in 2021 will realize the establishment of the Association; We will take a step forward to maintain the “stability” of the workforce. Including efforts to build harmonious labor relations, maintain political security in the labor field, pay close attention to the demands of employees and other measures.
