Hong Kong Gig Workers Demand Better Work Injury Protection Amid Delays and Low Payouts

Hong Kong delivery rider Raj Bhattarai* felt the pain – both physically and financially – after a vehicle rear-ended his motorcycle on the job about a year ago.

Bhattarai, who is in his forties, spent a month on sick leave with a back injury and waited 10 months before he received compensation for the accident. The payout was a paltry HK$3,000 (US$382).

“It is not enough at all,” said the father of one young child and the family’s sole breadwinner. “I used to earn around HK$30,000 a month, but I had no income for that whole month while I was recovering, and then I had to wait almost a year for this small amount.”

Bhattarai’s experience is not uncommon, with other injured riders saying months-long claim delays and meagre compensation have left them out of pocket and struggling.

As the gig economy grows, workers like Bhattarai and their unions are calling on the government to do more to protect their rights.

For a start, they want payouts under a proposed statutory work injury compensation scheme for gig workers – the first such initiative in the city – to be based on longer-term income averages and logged-on waiting time to be treated as protected working hours.