"The charge and replacement fee of 300 yuan per month, 150 yuan’s accident insurance premium, and an electric car can take delivery."
Gao Hu, born in 1991, worked in a brand beverage factory in his hometown of Liaoning before coming to Beijing, and once earned 4,000 yuan a month.
"The income here is higher than that in my hometown, and the threshold is lower. I have also seen people with disabilities such as deaf-mutes come to deliver takeout. Anyone can do it, that is, earning more and earning less." Takeaway rider Gao Hu said.
Not only in Gao Hu, according to the latest figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2021, there were 200 million flexible employees in China, including about 13 million take-away riders, accounting for nearly 1% of the national population base.
Flexible forms of employment, such as take-away riders, have expanded employment capacity and played a role as a reservoir. At the same time, the topic of social security for related people has been constantly discussed, such as no "five insurances and one gold", lack of insurance protection, repeated non-growth labor, unclear path of subsequent career development, and no promotion channel … In the opinion of experts, the relationship between flexible employees and platform enterprises exists in various forms, such as labor dispatch, contracting and agency. Labor relations are complex, and platform enterprises bear different social security responsibilities, so the protection of the rights and interests of new employees has become the most difficult problem to solve.
In recent years, the relevant state departments have continuously attached importance to the protection of labor rights and interests of the relevant groups, clearly put forward the standardization of employment, and made clear the responsibility of safeguarding workers’ rights and interests; Improve the system and fill the shortcomings in the protection of workers’ rights and interests; Guiding opinions such as improving efficiency and optimizing workers’ rights and interests protection services. However, safeguarding the labor rights and interests of the flexible employment population is complicated, and it must keep pace with the times. It also needs the platform and relevant departments to jointly promote it.
Riders are the "hands and feet" and "reservoirs" of platform economy, which may lead to unfair competition.
In July, 2021, Gao Hu became a "takeaway rider". In Gao Hu’s view, he ran a special delivery tour with flexible working hours and higher salary than his hometown. "10:00-14:00, 17:00-21:00, you must be online, and you can control yourself in other time periods. You run more than 40 orders every day and earn more than 9,000 yuan a month, compared with 4,000 yuan a month in your hometown. Dry takeaway earns more than the factory. "
Flexible and free work is a big reason why many people engage in take-away riders. Liu Hua, born in 1981, is a native of Miyun, Beijing. Before that, Liu Hua worked as a seller in a home store, and she chose to take delivery six months ago, also because this industry is simple and free. "There are too many meetings and rules in the mall, and we have to choose the sideline team. Finally, we will come to the US group to take out the team list."
The higher income than their hometown has also attracted many people to Beijing to join the army of takeaway riders. Born in Liu Yi in 2001, I worked as a KTV night service in my hometown in Hebei before I was hungry. "The main reason is that the salary in my hometown is too low, only 4,000 yuan a month; So I came to Beijing to run a takeaway. After all, this job is flexible and free. "
This job has also given many people the opportunity of short-term transitional life. Xu Hang, born in 2003, is from Chongqing, and will graduate from higher vocational education this year. He is in the internship period. He feels that the cost of living in the internship position arranged by the school is too high, and he is not interested in his major. He heard that the take-away industry makes a lot of money, so he wants to experience the work of a take-away rider.
Compared with special delivery, crowdsourcing is more free Li Jian introduced that the advantage of crowdsourcing is that it can work more flexibly. "For example, if there are no elevators in nearby communities, I will not take orders for high-rise buildings directly, so I don’t have to climb the stairs at all at the end of the day." He also said that I am used to crowdsourcing riders, and I can’t stand the constraints. I can rest at any time when it is windy and rainy, and the rider may have to go to work, and the afternoon peak must be online.
The inclusiveness of the profession has allowed the scale of take-away riders to continue to expand. From the data such as Meituan’s financial report alone, the total number of riders who earn income through Meituan’s platform has increased from more than 2.2 million in 2017 to 5.27 million in 2021. The number of people who are newly employed, including take-away riders and courier brothers, is far more than that. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2021, the number of flexible employees in China has reached 200 million.
Flexible employment can be seen everywhere. Li Zhiqi, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of the revitalization international think tank, believes that "the flexible employment groups such as take-away riders are the direct practitioners of the platform economy and the most important front-line executives of the platform economy. They are the hands and feet of the platform economy. Without them, the platform as a brain will not work, and its importance is beyond doubt."
Li Yan, dean of the same city recruitment research institute, told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that flexible employment is a new flexible employment mode. No matter the flexibility of time and quantity of workers, the flexibility of employment form or management mode, the threshold of the concept of "employment" has been lowered, the employment category has been broadened, and more workers can be absorbed. Flexible employment provides more choices for further deepening mass employment and entrepreneurship.
The report "Talent Flow and Migration 2022" shows that more than half of the people in the workplace want to use their professional skills to "earn extra money". Wang Qian, co-founder of Pulse, said that as far as flexible employment is concerned, freelancing is not affiliated with any organization and has high flexibility in working time and place, which is conducive to ensuring work-life balance and carrying out various career development and life experiences.
The vice president of capital university of economics and business Institute of Labor Economics talked from more angles. From the perspective of employment, flexible forms of employment, such as take-away riders, have expanded employment capacity and played a role as a reservoir. From the perspective of the labor market, this part of employment has also produced unfair competition effect, because the platform operators and other operators bear lower tax burden and social security costs, which indirectly leads to inequality with formal employment enterprises; It has also led to the problems of difficult and expensive recruitment in the formal employment field.
The "Freedom Trap" of Linggong;Only pay work-related injury insurance, and salary disputes frequently occur.
Flexible employment only has the advantages of freedom of work? In fact, Liu Hua found that although the take-away industry is simple and free, it also faces the situation of not being respected. "After receiving the order from the platform, the customer will call me and buy some other goods by the way. If you don’t bring it, you will be complained. If you complain, you will be fined. There are also some communities that will open a special channel for takeaway riders and feel discriminated against. "
In addition to the low sense of professional identity, labor rights and interests are not perfect. "Five insurances and one gold should be a must. There are many people in the country who are like take-away riders. After a few years, what should these people do after they are 40-50 years old? If the family is seriously ill, they can’t even afford money. Moreover, the probability of traffic accidents is also high. " Liu Hua believes that the platform has really facilitated the people and solved many employment problems. However, most of the people who run takeout have low academic qualifications and poor family conditions.
During the interview, the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter learned that at present, take-away riders are mainly divided into special delivery and crowdsourcing. Basically, they do not sign contracts directly with the platform, and most of them are dispatched by third-party companies, and no matter whether they are special delivery or crowdsourcing, take-away riders do not have five insurances and one gold, and generally only pay work-related injury insurance.
In January last year, Han, a crowdsourcing rider, died suddenly on the way to delivery. Because he did not sign a labor contract directly with the platform, the platform was only willing to provide humanitarian compensation of 2,000 yuan to his family, which triggered a heated discussion in society. After the platform, the amount of sudden death protection was raised to 600,000 yuan. Although the incident has already come to an end, the fate and behind of the takeaway rider; The security of flexible employees has become one of the topics of great concern to the public.
Deng Jianbo, founder and CEO of Youth League, a flexible employment recruitment service platform, told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that due to the short working cycle, flexible workers generally do not sign labor contracts, which is more prone to salary disputes, and it is difficult to be supported after disputes. At the same time, in terms of insurance, the process of both individual purchase and enterprise purchase is complicated, resulting in a low purchase ratio. On the whole, the salary guarantee and life insurance guarantee of flexible employees are relatively general.
An industry insider who uses a flexible employment intermediary platform is also rethinking the intermediary model. "Platforms like Meituan and SF can increase employment, so that some people can receive jobs and earn income. However, similar employment intermediary platforms serve (Meituan, Shunfeng) platforms, and the way to solve (reduce) the labor cost of the upstream platform by self-employed mode and harm the rights and interests of workers (riders) remains to be discussed. The so-called failure to create any jobs refers to these fiscal and taxation solution platforms, not to Meituan and Shunfeng. "
However, Wang Feng wants social security, because social security has been paid in the work system before, and many riders "don’t need" but actually "don’t know". For example, Liu Yigang has only been in contact with this job for more than half a month, and he is not clear about the unit price and social security of the job. "I just did it soon, and I didn’t attend the regular meeting of the site at 9: 00 in the morning. The specific guarantee is not clear."
"Many riders will think that they have worked hard for such a long time, and as a result, they have deducted so much money into the social security account in one month. If they don’t work, they can’t find a place to ask for this money. They are definitely not happy in their hearts. It is better to get all the money directly and be practical in their hearts." The rider Fang Duanxin said that many riders need to see cash, and the platform can basically withdraw cash immediately.
Gao Hu also paid little attention to this part and paid more attention to real income. "Takeaway can’t last a lifetime. A long three to five years or a short year or two is a transition. For example, I earn 10,000 now, and I may have 8,000 left after paying five insurances and one gold, but I have paid five insurances and one gold for only a few years, which will not be consistent. "
Scope, vice president of capital university of economics and business Institute of Labor Economics, believes that "at present, most 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 civil legal norms. From a practical point of view, flexible employment groups such as take-away riders do not have much problems in terms of labor remuneration, but their working hours are generally too long; Take-away riders use vehicles for a long time, and security is a problem; In social insurance, industrial injury insurance is insufficient, and there will be problems in medical care and old-age care in the future. "
The protection of the rights and interests of newly employed people is the most difficult to solve, and individuals with unclear labor relations are under pressure.
As mentioned above, the discussion on labor relations of flexible employment has a long history. "The relationship between these practitioners and platform enterprises exists in many forms, such as labor dispatch, contracting and agency. Labor relations are complex, and platform enterprises bear different social security responsibilities, so 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 Renmin University’s China Flexible Employment Development Report (2022), in a broad sense, it is the employment arrangement of human resources allocation in ways other than standard employment, which is mainly divided into labor dispatch, business outsourcing, human resources outsourcing, Internet platform employment, traditional odd jobs (part-time employment, part-time employment, daily employment, self-employment cooperation) and internships.
The report also mentioned that in the traditional part-time jobs, part-time jobs, daily settlement, and more labour relation, dependent self-employment are mostly cooperative relationships, and only part-time employment is defined as labor relations. However, in this employment scenario, enterprises only need to pay work-related injury insurance for part-time workers, and do not need to pay economic compensation when terminating employment relations, so the employment flexibility is high.
The employment forms of Internet platforms are relatively complicated. Some platforms (and third-party organizations) are involved in production management, so workers have strong subordination to platforms (and third-party organizations), and there are substantial labor relations. However, most platform employees belong to the labor/business contracting relationship or "the situation that labor relations are not completely established but enterprises manage workers".
Li Yan, president of 58 City Recruitment Research Institute, also said, "China’s flexible employment is still in its infancy. In the case of unclear labor relations and imperfect social security system, the pressures and risks that social individuals need to bear in flexible employment are various. For example, take-away workers may have to face labor disputes in three aspects: platform, merchants and customers at the same time. In addition, there are still shortcomings in employment safety and satisfaction, and even they cannot be completely independent in improving employment skills."
Fortunately, these relationships are being clarified at present. 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 New Employment Forms", which mentioned that enterprises should conclude labor contracts with workers according to law if they meet the conditions of establishing labor relations. If the enterprise does not fully conform to the situation of establishing labor relations, but the enterprise manages the laborers (hereinafter referred to as the situation of not fully conforming to the situation of establishing labor relations), it shall guide the enterprise to conclude a written agreement with the laborers to reasonably determine the rights and obligations of the enterprise and the laborers. 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 employment forms. During the two sessions of the National People’s Congress in 2022, the "Government Work Report" also proposed to strengthen flexible employment services, improve social security policies for flexible employment, and carry out pilot projects for occupational injury protection in new employment forms.
Relevant work has also been strengthened in various places, and many services have been launched in cities such as Beijing, where workers in new employment forms are concentrated. Relevant personnel of the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that in September 2021, the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions issued the "Implementation Plan for the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions to Promote the Work of Trade Unions in New Formats 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 workers, and earnestly safeguard the labor security rights and interests of new formats and new employment groups.
Recently, relevant personnel of the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions introduced that since June last year, the Municipal Federation of Trade Unions has promoted 17 Internet platform head enterprises such as JD.COM, Meituan and Didi, and 14 brand express delivery enterprises such as SF Express and "Three Links and One Reach" to establish trade union organizations, and accumulated 274,000 new employment form workers; More than 9,000 outdoor workers’ warm-hearted stations have been built; Provide five free guarantees such as major diseases and accidental injuries for workers and other groups with new employment forms.
Flexible employment needs to keep pace with the times, and the labor cost of regular employment should be properly balanced.
As the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said, in recent years, the platform economy has developed rapidly, creating a large number of employment opportunities. The number of new employment forms such as online delivery agents, online car drivers, truck drivers, and internet marketers who rely on the Internet platform for employment has increased significantly, and safeguarding workers’ labor security rights and interests is facing new situations and new problems.
Dealing with these matters must keep pace with the times. Li Zhiqi believes that flexible employment can’t be solved by the platform simply because of the different structure of labor relations. However, from the perspective of corporate social responsibility, the platform should guide partners to standardize the labor rights and interests of employed people. At the same time, the new format 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 types of employed people.
The scope indicates that from the perspective of improving the social security of relevant employment groups, it is necessary to solve the problem of occupational injury protection for flexible employment groups such as takeaway riders and courier brothers. Of course, there are preconditions for occupational injury protection, so it is necessary to strengthen the protection responsibility of the platform in terms of safety production, occupational safety and hygiene in operation and management, including providing corresponding occupational injury protection.
"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, and the labor costs of the two forms of employment should not be too different because of 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 considering the immediate economic interests. In the future, in the field of social security, flexible employment should also share responsibilities appropriately. " Scope mentioned.
"The unit price of flash delivery is high, and the journey is long, which earns much more than takeaway." Gao Hu revealed that he has offered to leave his job and intends to run a flash. "I can save 6,000 yuan every month. After working in Beijing for a few more years, I can go back to second-and third-tier cities to pay the down payment to buy a house, marry and have children; I can still drive a van and live. This profession just has no sense of belonging in the short term. "
For many people, becoming a rider is just a transitional occupation, which also reflects the common problems in flexible employment, that is, the subsequent 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 step is to further optimize the three-tier adjustment model 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 vocational training system for flexible employment and open up more career paths for flexible employees; Finally, improve the occupational social insurance system for flexible employees and provide more employment security for flexible employment groups.
Under the guidance of local human and social departments, according to Liu Xinyang, vice president of Hungry, the platform is promoting the vocational skills upgrading training of the new format of "network delivery staff" nationwide. The course includes abnormal handling of distribution, cleaning and disinfection of lunch boxes, etc. There are both online teaching and practical teaching classes, and you can also receive special government subsidies after the training.
In the second half of 2021, Meituan announced the launch of "four major measures" to help riders’ career development, including Meituan’s rider vocational training and academic further education plan, stationmaster training plan, rider transfer plan, rider online learning platform and other career development measures. It will provide riders with a full-cycle, multi-level career development path, actively break the existing career development model of the rider group, and constantly broaden the radius of rider employment and career choice.
In addition, Deng Jianbo believes that scientific and technological forces should be promoted to protect the rights and interests of odd jobs. Through the HR SAAS system, B-end enterprises can use online modules such as shift attendance, salary calculation, electronic contract, employment insurance, talent pool operation, supplier management, etc., and C-end users can check in, pay their salaries, and get electronic contract and insurance protection.
Recently, the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions issued the "Key Points of Work of Beijing Federation of Trade Unions in Promoting New Employment Forms in 2022", which mentioned that it is necessary to build a strong organizational system and ensure that all the top 100 Internet companies operating in Beijing in 2021 will realize the establishment of the meeting; Adhere to the "one step forward" in safeguarding rights and earnestly safeguard the stability of the workforce in the new employment form. Including efforts to build harmonious labor relations, safeguard political security in the labor field, pay close attention to the demands of employees and other measures.
(Gao Hu, Liu Hua, Liu Yi, Xu Hang, Li Jian, Wang Feng and Fang Duanxin are all pseudonyms)
Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Chen Weicheng Cheng Zijiao
Editor Song Yuting
Proofread Liu Baoqing
