(Yicai Global) July 9 -- China's cabinet is planning to review labor market regulations and test occupational injury insurance for those working in the gig economy, Yicai Global learned.

The State Council is considering remuneration, training, medical, and pension protections for flexible labor, Yicai Global learned from sources after the government body held an executive meeting this week.

China's rapidly growing platform economy has been criticized for workplace hazards due to delivery workers' dangerously tight schedules and their economically squeezed labor rights. The problem is that applications such as Ele.me and Didi Chuxing are a great way to make a quick profit but they lack some of the safety net features that people may eventually need.

So far Meituan and other companies in the field have not responded to Yicai Global's requests for interviews.

New Rules

The State Council has proposed to promote the establishment of various forms of labor relationships that are conducive to protecting the rights and interests of workers, said Zhang Chenggang, labor lab director at the Capital University of Economics and Business.

These new policies should add responsibilities that platforms need to take, said Zhang. But even then, platform companies bear fewer responsibilities than other firms that hire full-time workers, the research institute chief added.

Evidently, the work-related injury pilot would involve cost-sharing. Companies could buy commercial insurance for their workers and insurers could give back some of the profits while the government would boost its support.

Based on the new rules, platform companies' duties would be defined more clearly. Employers should refrain from setting any evaluation criteria that endanger employees' safety and health. They would need to pay on time and in full. Moreover, they would not be able to stop their workers from accepting orders on other platforms.

Most firms in the field probably pay on time and in full but employees' assessment indicators are a problem as the emerging industry lacks general standards and practices, said Zhang. This issue needs to be further explored, he added.

Moreover, firms would be urged to hear opinions from staff representatives when formulating new rules and algorithms regarding orders and commissions. They would need to make their final decisions public.

Algorithm Slaves

The new type of employment falls between the cracks of the social insurance system. For example, when a takeout driver died during working hours late last year, the employer told his family that they could receive CNY2,000 (USD308) in humanitarian compensation and CNY30,000 (USD4,626) from the casualty insurance.

Usually, food delivery staff are technically part-time workers so their social benefits are inadequate, said Zheng Lei, digital economy lab director at the Hong Kong International New Economic Research Institute.

The trimmed contracts may not even be illegal. It is very difficult to decide whether there is an employment relationship between workers and these platforms based on the current labor laws and regulations, said Lou Yu, social law institute director at China University of Political Science and Law.

However, the risks are not limited to takeout staff. Besides hurting themselves, drivers might hurt other people when rushing around, which currently is an overlooked risky aspect of the sector, Zheng added.

Controlling Technology

Experts that Yicai Global interviewed were placing questions of legal and economical nature but another way to see the problem is that regulation lags behind the increasingly smart technology. And those questions are harder to address.

Chen Long, a sociology PhD at Peking University who earlier worked as a delivery guy for five months, said to Yicai Global that the specific platform was calculating the schedules based on his physique, including his height and the length of his stride. Governments may require takeout platforms to pay fixed salaries but how can they stop firms from pursuing maximum efficiency?

Within the existing legal framework, it is hard to protect workers' rights and interests, Lou added.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi