Platform Employment Relations in Present China: Problems, Symptoms and Realistic Paths

Along with the development of digital technology, the adjustment of industrial structure and the emergence of platform enterprises, "platform employment" has emerged as a new form of employment, which has played a positive role in stabilizing jobs and increasing residents' income. However, this new form of employment, which is flexible, elastic and diversified, also makes China's traditional labor relations recognition system and its corresponding labor protection laws and systems seem more and more inadequate. For this reason, some scholars have proposed the concept of "labor trichotomy", arguing that the traditional labor dichotomy should be used as a basis to develop the institutional space for a "third type of labor relations", treating platform workers as "employee-like" and constructing a related legal system. This paper argues that we should open up the institutional space of "third class labor relations" based on the traditional labor dichotomy, treat platform workers as "employee-like" and build a multi-level protection system. This paper argues that since there are many kinds of platform enterprises and the needs of platform employees are different, it is undoubtedly difficult to establish a third type of labor relations to regulate this new form of employment, with its operation difficult and its practicality doubtful. It is also difficult to achieve targeted protection for various types of platform employees. In line with the principle of "problem-oriented, urgent use first", the construction of the occupational injury protection system, which is the most important concern of platform employees, should be strengthened as soon as possible, and pilot work has been carried out by local governments and leading platform enterprises. In the future, the government should issue a national document on occupational injury protection system as soon as possible, and encourage platform enterprises and related organizations to build an occupational injury protection system suitable for their fields and industries.