During the National Day holiday, in addition to traveling, many friends chose to rest at home, dine together and spend money, while workers in new employment forms such as takeaway riders and online ride-hailing drivers still shuttled through the streets and alleys of the city, providing uninterrupted convenient services for the operation of the city.
They are “people in a hurry” and “creators and guardians of a better life”. Nowadays, a series of real measures, from flexible scheduling and heart-warming stations to the implementation of occupational injury protection and dynamic optimization of platform algorithms, are building a solid protection network for their rights and interests.
Life is cared for, work is guaranteed, and risks are protected. How does this protection translate from policy provisions to daily scenes? In the digital age, what are the urgent difficulties and worries for workers in the new form of employment? What difficulties does rights protection face?
At seven o'clock in the morning, at the Peony Square Station of a food delivery platform in Luoyang, Henan, riders came one after another to sign in and take orders. Webmaster Yang Bo said that the site covers the business district, residential areas and scenic spots around Peony Square. Holiday dinner orders, tourist convenience orders, and home life orders are superimposed, and the order volume has increased significantly compared with daily life. At the same time, the platform's supporting incentive policies also allow riders to get more full returns for their efforts.
Yang Bo: During holidays, the order volume will increase by 20% to 40% compared with normal times. The more riders run on a piece-rate basis, the more they earn. During the National Day period, you will get double points. If you run more, you will get higher points. Riders will receive star service awards. After winning, there will be an additional subsidy of up to 0.4 yuan per order.
In order to effectively serve front-line outdoor workers, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province has built 409 standardized warm "new" stations, all of which will be open to the public during the National Day. The station provides free one-stop heart-warming services such as temporary rest, hot water supply, hot meal heating, equipment charging, and simple injury treatment for takeaway riders, online ride-hailing drivers, sanitation workers, etc.
Qiao Zhixiang, deputy director of operations of the Marketing Planning Department of Pingyao Ancient City Scenic Area Management Co., Ltd.: During the National Day, the number of tourists in Pingyao Ancient City continued to be full, travel and delivery orders doubled, and front-line workers were under great pressure to travel. We create a 15-minute warm "new" service circle and extend the inn service to the streets and alleys of scenic spots and around business districts. It not only solves the problem of difficulty in resting and replenishing supplies for workers in food delivery and online ride-hailing services, but also better serves tourists for their travels through standardized and orderly transportation capacity guarantees and high-quality convenient services.
Some places have also moved social security services into warm "new" stations. The "Social and Banking New Station" jointly built by Jinan Social Security Center and banks was put into use before the National Day holiday. Liu Yang, director of the Social Insurance Registration Office of the Social Insurance Center of Jinan City, Shandong Province, said that in addition to being equipped with convenient facilities, the post station also provides insurance consultation and processing services.
Liu Yang: Workers can not only rest at the post station, but also simultaneously handle high-frequency services such as insurance information inquiry, insurance registration for flexible employment personnel, and social security card processing, so that social security services can be handled nearby, conveniently and quickly, and the "last mile" of social security services is opened up.
Takeaway riders race against time to deliver orders, and are most afraid of waiting at red lights at intersections. Recently, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, gave a new solution: the public security and traffic control departments and others launched the "waiting for lights, stopping the clock, and incentivizing law-abiding" mechanism. Bao Junzheng, the third-level sergeant of the order management brigade of the Traffic Management Detachment of the Nantong City Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu Province, said that for riders who have maintained no traffic violation records for a long time, the company will give substantial preference in dispatch priority, monthly bonuses, and honorary commendations.
Bao Junzheng: To put it simply, it means that the rider will not suffer any loss while waiting for the red light. In the past, traffic violations for riders were mainly punished and reported. Now we start from protecting the legitimate rights and interests of riders, optimizing assessment rules, and allowing companies to actively participate in traffic safety governance, which helps to form a virtuous cycle of "traffic police manage safety, companies manage assessment, and riders get benefits."
Since July 1, the pilot program of occupational injury protection for new employment forms has been fully launched in 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The system is billed on a per-item basis and must be insured for each order. The premium is borne by the platform company, and individual workers do not need to pay, which makes up for the shortcomings of accidental protection for new employment groups during their work. Shi Anyun, deputy director of the Work-related Injury Insurance Department of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Hefei City, Anhui Province, said that the three links of confirmation, appraisal, and benefit payment are packaged together to provide a "one-stop" service.
Shi Anyun: We introduce hospitals through bidding and provide waiting areas. During the identification process, if they need supplementary information, a green channel is provided here, and the supplementary materials can be collected as soon as the same day.
In response to actual situations such as newly employed workers continuing to travel during the holidays, some platforms have launched optimization measures. According to Wang Gong, the person in charge of Lalamove Market, from September 21 to October 7, peak service fees will be implemented for some orders, with a maximum increase of 40% for a small vehicle and a maximum increase of 60% for a large vehicle. From September 24 to October 7, nationwide orders for certified cars of 4.2 meters and below will not be included in the on-time performance to reduce the assessment pressure on drivers due to road congestion, bad weather and other objective factors during the festival.
Palace: The key to protecting the rights of drivers during the holidays is to solve their most practical problems while driving. On the one hand, during periods when order demand is high, drivers can get a more reasonable return for their labor through peak service fees; on the other hand, taking into account objective conditions such as road congestion during the National Day, some order punctuality assessments are phased out to avoid drivers increasing driving risks in a hurry.
Wang Tianyu, a researcher at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the social services provided by workers in the new employment form have become an important part of social infrastructure. Providing supporting guarantees for these workers who are still on the go has become a social consensus and continues to be explored and promoted at the policy level and platform employment standards.
Wang Tianyu: Bottom-line protection not only covers occupational injuries in new forms of employment, but also requires rest after continuous work. There has also been significant progress in rationally allocating labor tasks based on algorithms and determining appropriate labor intensity. This confirms that the “15th Five-Year Plan” explicitly promotes the continuous improvement of the protection of workers’ rights and interests in new employment forms, allowing new employment forms to develop more sustainably and healthily.
