China Proposes New Rules to Protect Gig Workers, Including Human Review for Account Bans

October 8 (IT Home) — The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security today published draft Measures for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Workers in New Forms of Employment, opening a public consultation that runs until 8 November.

The draft sets out basic labour rights including equal employment and freedom to choose work, remuneration, rewards and penalties, working hours and intensity, rest, occupational safety and health, protection in severe weather, vocational training, social insurance, personal information protection and collective bargaining, establishing a floor for the working conditions of workers in new forms of employment. It clarifies the content of basic labour rights protection, regulates labour rules and algorithms, regulates corporate employment arrangements by category, opens up channels for resolving labour disputes, specifies the supervisory duties of government departments and sets out the legal liability for violating the measures.

During the public consultation, the public can submit comments by visiting the ministry’s website, writing letters or sending emails.

According to China National Radio, new forms of employment represented by platform work have flourished in China in recent years, and the number of workers in such jobs — ride-hailing drivers, food delivery riders, online streamers and others — has continued to grow. At the same time, there are many shortcomings in the protection of labour rights in these new forms of employment: withheld pay, excessively long working hours and inadequate safety protection occur from time to time, drawing widespread public concern.

The draft broadens the scope of labour protection. For the first time, in the form of a joint departmental regulation, it brings workers who are subject to a company’s labour management but do not fully meet the conditions for establishing an employment relationship into the protection of the labour law system. By defining terms such as “workers in new forms of employment,” it covers the main groups, including delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers, online freight drivers and online streamers.

The draft specifies that pay for normal work must not fall below the local minimum wage, that workers who work four hours continuously should be guaranteed appropriate rest, and that work on statutory holidays and in severe weather should be paid at a higher rate. It also establishes an occupational injury protection system, forming a clear list of rights and setting a minimum standard for corporate employment practices.

On wage payment, it requires that remuneration be drawn at agreed intervals and that no handling fees be charged.

In response to the widespread abuse of deductions and fines in new forms of employment, the draft encourages positive incentives and prohibits the abuse of punitive measures such as fines. Rest rights are protected through transparency and in-work breaks, and, given that these workers often work outdoors, the draft sets out labour protection in severe weather.

The draft further tightens platform responsibility. It regulates platform labour rules and algorithms, clarifies the labour protection responsibilities of platform companies and the responsibilities they must bear in cooperative employment arrangements, prohibits attempts to evade employment responsibility and establishes a mechanism that traces employment responsibility through the chain.

The draft also responds forcefully to public concern about being “trapped in the algorithm.” It requires companies to explain the basic principles and workings of their algorithms to workers, bans algorithmic discrimination, and provides that decisions with a major impact on workers — such as stopping the dispatch of orders or banning accounts — must not be made automatically by an algorithm, but must go through human review.

Within companies, the draft requires a standing communication and appeal mechanism: if a worker raises an objection about pay, working hours, performance assessment or an account ban, the company must reply through a human being within 48 hours.