A Third Employment Category for Platform Workers in China: A Tough Start

Abstract In China, labour providers can be classified as employees or as independent contractors. Although platform workers have a certain freedom to decide when and where to work, they are nonetheless subordinate to their employers to a greater degree than independent contractors. However, because they are generally classified as independent contractors rather than employees, they cannot obtain any of the rights accorded to employees. Since platform workers are also unlike employees and have their own distinct characteristics, the mere extension of the labour rights an employee owes to the platform worker cannot solve this problem. A third employment category—an intermediate one between the employee and the independent contractor—may be a viable option that provides platform workers with partial labour rights. The Chinese government has been reluctant to create such a category but changed its stance on 16 July 2021, when it issued the Guiding Opinions on Protecting Workers in the New Form of Employment. This regulation creates a third employment category for workers ‘who do not meet the employee status standard but are subject to some degree of control from the company’. This regulation also grants the group many, but not all, employee rights, such as minimum wage. Given the particular needs of third category workers, occupational injury insurance and other issues should be redesigned to meet these needs.