As one of thousands of cyclists in Shanghai, Su Qiang has become accustomed to this way of "finding a job with a mobile phone and working with a mobile phone". He told reporters that he just entered the business during the Spring Festival this year, but being a rider is much better than helping workers in restaurants in the past. "On the one hand, the income is enough to support himself; On the other hand, this job is free and flexible. If you want to do it, you can rest if you don’t want to do it. "
In fact, in the era of sharing economy, Su Qiang’s idea of doing odd jobs in his spare time represents the voice of many young people. Especially in the express delivery and take-away distribution industries, "odd jobs" riders have become more and more common.
Ge Yanxia, a researcher at the Institute of Social Development Strategy of China Academy of Social Sciences, explained that in the "odd-job economy", many migrant workers are independent employees with non-contract system, and they may be full-time or part-time. In terms of connotation, "odd-job economy" is an important part of the sharing economy, and "odd-job" riders are the employees emerging in this brand-new economic form.
Although nominally "odd jobs", Su Qiang’s daily work is busier than full-time work. He told reporters that he works 12 hours a day on average, gets off work at nearly 10 o’clock every night, and only takes a day or two off a month, in the hope that his income will be more impressive.
This wish is based on the rapid matching of Internet and mobile technology, and the supply and demand sides can be connected by only one mobile phone. To a certain extent, it has lowered the threshold for entering the industry and allowed more and more people to participate in the "odd-job economy" in a full-time manner.
According to the "China Sharing Economy Development Annual Report (2019)" released by the National Information Center in February this year, in 2018, the transaction volume of China’s sharing economy market was 2,942 billion yuan, an increase of 41.6% over the previous year; The number of employees on the platform was 5.98 million, an increase of 7.5% over the previous year. The new kinetic energy role of sharing economy in promoting service industry structure optimization, rapid growth and consumption pattern transformation is increasingly prominent. The report also predicts that in the next three years, China’s sharing economy will still maintain an average annual growth rate of more than 30%, and its potential in stabilizing employment and promoting consumption will be further released.
However, the "odd job economy" is not without its drawbacks. Earlier, some experts pointed out that "odd jobs" not only broke the traditional employment relationship between employers (demand side) and workers (supply side), but also posed great challenges to the existing policies and institutional mechanisms such as labor, employment, training and social security, as well as the corresponding service system.
Casual riders like Su Qiang have real feelings, such as lack of security and belonging.
Being employed as a "part-time worker" and lacking social security benefits.
What makes these riders so worried? People in the industry point to the lack of labor insurance rights.
The reporter learned that only employees of direct express delivery companies such as SF Express and Debon have complete pension insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work injury insurance, maternity insurance and housing provident fund protection; In some express delivery companies, some employees have "five insurances" and no "one gold"; Most employees who take part-time jobs buy work-related injury insurance in 3 yuan every day, with no other protection, or even sign a formal labor contract.
According to the research report on "Promoting the Professional Development and Social Integration of Young Express Delivery Workers" jointly published by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Party Committee of the State Post Bureau, the overall signing rate of courier labor contracts is only 78.7%. Under the franchise operation mode, outlets, as contractors, are responsible for their own profits and losses. In order to save costs and avoid risks, most outlets do not sign labor contracts with couriers, which is convenient for dismissal at any time. The take-away platform also only reached a labor dispatch export agreement with the third-party human resources company.
This temporary flexible employment replaces the traditional employment mode, allowing riders to work and live in a relatively free way. But at the same time, it is difficult for them to obtain corresponding protection, leaving hidden dangers in personal safety, wages and benefits. Therefore, many riders have no formal salary and social security, and they can only do a single commission. If there is an accident on the way to delivery, you can only bear the consequences yourself.
Experts suggest building a security line by paying social security, but some enterprises have different considerations. Zhang Weijian, the operation director of Shanghai Yiditong Network Technology Co., Ltd. told the reporter that if you pay five insurances and one gold, the enterprise will spend 1600 ~ 2000 yuan more on one employee every month. But now, the competition among major platforms is becoming more and more fierce, and the profit of outlets is limited. In order not to close down and survive, the only thing that businesses can think of for the first time is to reduce the cost of employing people.
In addition, there is another important reason, that is, most riders don’t understand social security benefits such as five insurances and one gold. In the interview, some riders think that they don’t need to participate in medical insurance if they have work-related injury insurance. Others think that the "new rural cooperative medical system" that they participate in in rural areas can reimburse medical expenses in the event of traffic accidents, but this is not the case.
Some riders don’t understand social security benefits, which makes businesses "drill holes". Some affiliate sites will take advantage of the blind spot that job seekers don’t understand social security knowledge and take the initiative in employment relations.
Li Xiaoyu (a pseudonym), a 22-year-old rider, told reporters that the labor contract he signed did not involve five insurances and one gold. The contract is in duplicate and kept by the stationmaster. He just paid the 1000 yuan agency fee, took his ID card, filled out a form, and had a brief chat with the stationmaster, so he became a rider of a takeaway site in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou.
"Social security is paid by enterprises and employees in proportion. If employees want to get more wages in front of them, they will not take the initiative to fight for the company. In addition, riders pay social security in one city, and it is difficult to migrate with labor relations in another city. Even if they go through the migration procedures, they can only take away a little. " Xu Yong, chief consultant of Express Logistics Information Network, explained.
In his view, the consequence of this problem is that the rider has no long-term work plan, the household registration problem, the children’s schooling problem, etc. are all unresolved, and they lack a sense of belonging to the city, which will also interfere with the improvement of the supporting security system and service system.
Safety accidents are frequent, and the mobility of the rider industry is high.
For "odd-job" riders, safety accidents that may occur at any time are the most troublesome problems for them.
It is also for this reason that the 24-year-old Lu Yuan (pseudonym) got out of the takeaway industry. In May last year, Lu Yuan applied to be a rider at a take-away station in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, but on his first day at work, he encountered a traffic accident.
"I didn’t drive in the opposite direction, didn’t run a red light, and didn’t listen to music. I just looked down at whether there was a new order on my mobile phone, and I was hit by a car on the right, and even people and cars fell to the ground." Lu Yuan told reporters that at that time, he was completely blinded, the takeaway was scattered, and the battery car for food delivery was also damaged.
Because of his part-time job status and his first day at work, the person in charge of the take-away station only took a short trip to the incident and suggested that he go to the hospital for filming, without mentioning insurance and compensation.
Lu Yuan was a little scared and ended his riding career the next day. "If you have insurance, you may stick to it for a long time, but there was only an oral agreement at that time, and there were no safeguards, so you gave up. Being a rider, making money is making money, but it is really hard-earned money and life money. "
Lu Yuan’s experience is not a case. In China’s open website of adjudicative documents, there are at least 473 traffic accidents, 167 labor contract disputes, 137 insurance contract disputes, more than 380 personal injury compensation and more than 210 disability compensation.
However, the contradictions and disputes published on the Internet are only a small part in real life. For example, in previous media reports, the Shenzhen traffic police revealed that in early September 2017, nearly 1,900 traffic violations involving take-away food delivery occurred in Shenzhen; According to the incomplete statistics of the public security traffic police department in Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, from January to October 2018, there were 1,291 traffic accidents involving electric vehicles delivered by take-away enterprises in Cangzhou area, and 802 people were injured.
According to the latest data from Shanghai Traffic Police Corps, in the first half of 2019, there were 325 road traffic accidents involving express delivery and take-away industries in Shanghai, resulting in 5 deaths and 324 injuries. Among them, there were 111 cases of "Hungry" company, accounting for 34.2%, and two food delivery staff died; There were 109 "Meituan" companies, accounting for 33.5%; 29 "Box Horse" companies, accounting for 8.9%; There were 11 "Shunfeng" express delivery companies, accounting for 3.4%.
According to statistics, 65.7% of riders said they didn’t take any action when their labor rights were infringed. Even if action is taken, it is mainly that individuals negotiate with their own units or resign directly, and the proportion of people who go through the labor dispute arbitration Committee, find trade unions, find courts and find the media is very low.
With the expansion of distribution services to small and medium-sized cities, counties and towns, it is even more difficult to protect the rights and interests of riders.
In a county in northwest China, rider Chen Yifei (a pseudonym) told reporters that the two take-out platforms in his county are run by other errands software, and the employees are mainly part-time, which is very mobile. In the past three months, 6 out of 11 part-time workers have left the industry. Chen Yifei also gave up after three minor traffic accidents, "because no matter how much pain you suffered and how much money you spent, all you got was a word of relief".
"Limited delivery and strict labor monitoring have led to many traffic accidents and physical injuries." Ge Yanxia said that it is very important to ensure the labor safety of takeaway workers.
However, the lower entry threshold and higher wage income still attract a large number of young people to join the ranks of riders without protection. The "2018 Takeaway Rider Group Insight Report" released by Hummingbird Distribution takes Dongguan City, Guangdong Province as an example. From 2015 to 2018, the number of local hummingbird riders increased by 31 times.
The average income of hummingbird riders in 2017 also exceeded the average monthly salary of employees in urban private units nationwide by 3,813.4 yuan, and the monthly income of many riders exceeded the average monthly salary of their original provinces. For example, the monthly income of Henan riders is 24% higher than the average monthly salary of employees in urban private units in Henan Province.
Let the rider find a sense of security and need institutional support.
To a certain extent, the emergence of "odd-job" riders is a supplement to the existing labor market and an inevitable trend of the development of sharing economy. But correspondingly, with the expansion of platform economy, the social security welfare problems of riders will become more common.
As early as 2017, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Employment and Entrepreneurship at Present and in the Future", clearly proposing to improve the employment and social security systems adapted to the characteristics of new employment forms, supporting workers to achieve diversified employment through emerging formats, and speeding up the construction of "online social security" to facilitate employees in new employment forms to participate in insurance and transfer social security.
However, there is still a long way to go to build a perfect security system for odd-job riders. Xu Yong believes that this is a complex topic, not a problem that enterprises and industries can solve.
Ge Yanxia thought about the reasons for the absence of rider social security. She said that in addition to the reduction of employment costs by merchants and the lack of social security awareness of riders, the current lack of protection for riders is also related to the scope of existing policies.
"On the one hand, the relationship between the rider and the platform is not a traditional employment relationship, but a business cooperation relationship. Within the scope of the current social security policy, their social security rights and interests have not been completely solved. On the other hand, the payment base of social security for freelancers is determined according to the local average social wage in the previous year, and the minimum is not less than 60% of the average monthly wage of employees, and the maximum is not more than 300% of the average social wage, and ‘ Odd jobs ’ The income gap of riders is large. " Ge Yanxia said.
So how to solve the immediate problem? Ge Yanxia gave two suggestions. One is to suggest that the platform provide riders with 30% ~ 50% social security subsidies for each order without reducing the current remuneration for each order, and then the riders themselves will buy the commercial insurance they need in the insurance market according to their own wishes. "The actual operation of this scheme is simple and scientific, but the difficulty lies in how to determine the proportion of subsidies".
Another solution is to suggest that several powerful platforms pay social security for riders. Ge Yanxia admits that this scheme regards the relationship between the rider and the platform as an employment relationship, but it needs legal enforcement in order to be guaranteed. "First, the mobility of riders is very strong, which will affect the platform to pay social security for them to some extent; Second, because the riders on the platform are currently in a situation of oversupply, the platform does not lack riders and lacks the enthusiasm to improve the social security benefits of riders. "
China Youth Daily China Youth Network Trainee Reporter Harper Wei Qimeng Source: China Youth Daily
