LABOUR RIGHTS PROTECTION FOR PLATFORM WORKERS IN CHINA: CURRENT LANDSCAPE, INSTITUTIONAL GAPS, AND REFORM PATHWAYS
Keywords:
Platform work, GIG economy, China, Labour rights, Employment classification, Algorithmic management, Social protectionAbstract
China’s trade union federation counts 84 million workers in ‘new forms of employment’, most of them organised through digital labour platforms. Their legal protection has become one of the largest open questions in Chinese industrial relations. This review essay takes stock of what English-language research and official sources show about that question. It proceeds in three steps. First, it synthesises the empirical record. Algorithmic management intensifies work; layered outsourcing detaches riders from the platforms they serve; most platform workers sit outside employment-based social insurance; collective voice runs through informal networks rather than institutions. Second, it examines the institutional response built since 2021: the eight-ministry Guiding Opinions, the new category of workers who do not fully meet the conditions of a labour relationship, the occupational injury insurance pilot, and algorithm regulation. Third, it compares this response with the presumption-of-employment route taken in the European Union, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with California’s reversal, and with Australian and ILO developments. The essay closes by identifying four institutional gaps and the reform pathways that follow from them.References
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