Understanding the Employment Status of Gig-Workers in China’s Sharing Economy Era–An Empirical Legal Study

Shanyun, Xiao

doi:10.1515/ajle-2019-0019

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The gig economy relies on a workforce of independent contractors whose employment, representation, and social protection circumstances are at best uncertain, and at worst disadvantaged (14, 18,23,33). Due to the ambiguous status of gig workers, their protection against work-related injuries is lacking (34)(35)(36). There is still extensive debate as to whether gig workers are employees, collaborators, or a third category of workers (15-19, 33, 37-44) and this ultimately leads to the fragility of gig workers (2,4,7,9,11,12,23,39,(41)(42)(43)(45)(46)(47).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behind the flexibility: insufficient occupational injury protection of gig workers in China

Ran

Zhao²

2023

Front. Public Health

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ObjectiveOccupational injury protection is essential to safeguard the basic rights of workers. This article focuses on a group of gig workers who have emerged on a large scale in recent years in China and aims to explore their status of occupational injury protection.MethodsBased on the theory of technology-institution innovation interaction, we adopted the institution analysis to assess the work-related injury protection of gig workers. The comparative study was used to evaluate three cases of occupational injury protection in China for gig workers.ResultsInstitutional innovation failed to respond to technological innovation and provided insufficient occupational injury protection for gig workers. The work-related injury insurance was inaccessible to gig workers due to they were not treated as employees in China. The work-related injury insurance was not available to gig workers. Although some practices were explored, shortcomings remain.ConclusionsBehind the flexibility of gig work is insufficient occupational injury protection. According to the theory of technology-institution innovation interaction, we believe the reform of work-related injury insurance is increasingly essential for improving the situation of gig workers. This research contributes to expanding understanding of gig workers' situation and may offer a reference to other countries on protecting gig workers against occupational injuries.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behind the flexibility: insufficient occupational injury protection of gig workers in China

Ran

Zhao²

2023

Front. Public Health

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“…Gig workers have been exploring a range of tactics such as the coordination of small-scale protests to demand higher pay, injury compensation, and fairer work schedules, based on a judgement that low-profile bargaining with management may be more effective than large-scale disruptions to traffic to get public attention (Liu & Friedman 2021). At other times, leveraging formal legal institutions, aggrieved workers have filed labour disputes across multiple industries covering food and parcel delivery, car-hailing, and other types of platform-mediated service work, while labour relations between the online platforms and gig workers remain somewhat ambiguous (Lei 2021;Xiao 2019). Ultimately, suspension or deactivation of the troublemakers' user accounts is characteristic of the 'algorithmic panopticon' (Woodcock 2020, 88).…”

Section: Technology-driven Growth Platform Economy and The Politics O...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Class, labour conflict, and workers’ organisation

Chan

2023

Econ. labour relat. rev.

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This article is part of an internationally coordinated themed collection on ‘labour conflict, forms of organisation, and class’ exploring important questions. How can we explain the interplay of capital, the state, and the international order, in defining the persistence of labour conflict in changing historical and political-economic contexts? How have the economic, social, and technological transformations precipitated by the recent pandemic shaped the expression of work-related conflict? As part of a response to these main questions, the author and contributors of this collection conceptualise labour conflict and collective action in broader class analysis and examine the combined effect of state policies, migration, and digital innovation on contemporary labour politics. This article, drawing on insights from Marxist-oriented interdisciplinary approaches and feminist theories, seeks to suggest approaches to future studies on class, labour conflict, and workers’ organisation.

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“… Operating expenses : The sharing economy has significantly transformed the traditional business patterns and the way people work. The gig workers bear the transaction and operating expenses out of their own pockets and the gig platforms use this to gain huge profits by just being a digital mediator between the customers and the gig workers (Xiao, 2019). Ever since the payments have been transforming digitally, it has been a great help to the gig workers to plan and manage their vehicle expenses such as EMI, fuel or maintenance costs (Prabhat et al.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to entry of gig workers in the gig platforms: exploring the dark side of the gig economy

Behl

Rajagopal

Sheorey

et al. 2022

AJIM

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PurposeThe alternative arrangements to traditional employment have become a promising area in the gig economy with the technological advancements dominating every work. The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers to the entry of gig workers in gig platforms pertaining to the food delivery sector. It proposes a framework using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) for which systematic literature review is done to extract the variables. This analysis helps to examine the relationship between the entry barriers to gig platforms. The study further proposes strategies to reduce the entry barriers in gig sector which would help to enhance productivity and generate employment opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses interpretive structural model (ISM) to ascertain the relationship between various entry barriers of the gig workers to the gig platforms. It also validates the relationship and understand the reasons of their association along with MICMAC analysis. The model was designed by consulting the gig workers and the experts allied to food delivery gig platforms namely Zomato and Swiggy.FindingsIt was observed that high competition, longer login hours and late-night deliveries are the significant barriers with high driving power and low dependence power. Poor payment structures and strict terms and conditions for receiving the incentives are interdependent on each other and have moderate driving and dependence power. The expenses borne by the gig workers, such as Internet, fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses have high dependence power and low driving power. Hence, they are relatively less significant than other barriers.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is confined to food delivery sector of India, without considering other important sectors of gig economy for generalizing the framework. As the study is based on forming an ISM framework through literature review only, it does not consider other research methods for analysing the entry barriers to the gig platforms.Practical implicationsThe study attempts to dig out the low entry barriers for gig workers in food delivery platforms as there is a dearth of analysis of these factors. This study would weave them using ISM framework to help the gig platforms overcome these barriers at various levels, thus adding to the body of literature.Originality/valueThe study discusses the need for understanding relationship between the entry barriers in the form of ISM model to identify the dependent and driving factors of the same.

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Understanding the Employment Status of Gig-Workers in China’s Sharing Economy Era–An Empirical Legal Study

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Behind the flexibility: insufficient occupational injury protection of gig workers in China

Behind the flexibility: insufficient occupational injury protection of gig workers in China

Class, labour conflict, and workers’ organisation

Barriers to entry of gig workers in the gig platforms: exploring the dark side of the gig economy

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