Building employment injury protection for platform workers

The ILO Country Office in Beijing and MOHRSS organized a Research Seminar on Employment Injury Insurance for Workers in the Platform Economy aimed at sharing experiences and providing recommendations for a national regulatory framework for employment injury coverage of platform workers in China.

新闻发布 | 2021年4月27日
Beijing(ILO News) – Worldwide, only 35.4% of the labour force is covered for employment injury insurance. The ILO Country Office in Beijing and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) organized a one-day Research Seminar on Employment Injury Insurance (EII) for Workers in the Platform Economy on 27 April 2021 aimed at sharing experiences and providing recommendations for a national regulatory framework for employment injury coverage of platform workers in China.

Guest speakers on the seminar
Mr. Dai Xiaochu, Deputy Director at ILO Beijing Office indicated that the topic of platform work has been high on the agenda of the ILO. Workers in platform companies are particularly prone to risks of accidents at work. However, for legal and administrative reasons they are not being able to access benefits. Mr. Hao Bin, Director-General of International Department at MOHRSS emphasized that the objective of extension of coverage to platform workers is an opportunity for innovation, as new forms of business will become the new norm.

Martine Humblet, ILO Legal Specialist presented recent case laws on the categorization of platform workers in several countries. She mentioned that ILO Recommendation 198 on employment relationship has been widely used to ensure that workers are not misclassified and they do enjoy adequate social security benefits. Hiroshi Yamabana, ILO Senior Actuary reminded core social security standards that are applicable to all workers and compared social insurance and commercial insurance, indicating that voluntary private insurance has had limited success in covering adequately the most vulnerable workers. Weng Renmu, Associate Researcher at the Chinese Academy of Labour and Social Security (CALSS) presented pilot experiences in China promoting employment injury coverage of platform workers, followed by additional points by MOHRSS representatives from the pilot provinces (Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan). Zhu Yuanhui, Deputy Director of Employment Injury Department of MOHRSS indicated that the Seminar was timely as national regulations are being currently discussed. He underlined the importance of correctly tailoring measures to different groups of flexible workers. Guo Peng, Associate Professor, Deputy Director, Institute of Social Security, China University of Labor Relations reinforced the need for an overarching legal framework that can guide provinces to further develop their current initiatives based on agreed principles.

The Seminar gathered about 70 participants from MOHRSS at national and provincial levels, Chinese Academy of Labour and Social Security (CALSS) and Social Insurance Administration (SIA) of MOHRSS. Chen Jia from Social Insurance Division, Dept. of Rights and Interests Protection, All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and Wang Yijie from the Research Division, Employers’ Department, China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) provided the perspective of social partners.

The following experts and representatives of their countries presented international case studies: Kristoffer Lundberg, Deputy Director at the Ministry Health and Social Affairs in Sweden, Noel Rodríguez García, Advisor at the Ministry of Labour in Spain, Dato' Sri Dr. Mohammed Azman Bin Dato' Aziz Mohammed, Chief Executive Officer from Malaysia Social Security Organization and Etienne VAILLANCOURT from the Committee on Standards, Equity, Occupational Health and Safety Quebec in Canada.

In concluding remarks, CALSS President Jin Weigang reiterated the importance of this collaboration with the ILO. Mr. Xu Yanjun, DG-Level Counsel, SIA called for innovation giving the example of the scheme for construction workers established in China 2014. Mr. Luis Frota, Chief Technical Advisor from the ILO Beijing Office said that all workers should benefit from at least a basic floor of social protection in case of employment injury independently of their labour market attachment.