China Drafts First Rules for Gig Worker Protections
China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) on October 8 released a draft regulation that would, for the first time, bring workers managed by platform companies—but not formally classified as employees—under the protection of the country’s labor-law system. The Measures for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Workers in New Employment Forms (Draft for Public Comment), which opened for public consultation through November 8, according to Xinhua News, targets a population of roughly 84 million people—about 21% of China’s workforce.
The 54-article draft covers major gig-economy groups including food-delivery riders, ride-hailing and freight drivers, domestic service workers, and live-streamers. It marks the first time China has used a formal regulation (规章), rather than guidance or directive, to address the legal gray zone in which platform workers who do not meet the criteria for a standard labor relationship (劳动关系) have operated.
Background: A Multiyear Policy Chain
The draft is the culmination of a policy effort that stretches back several years. In 2021, MOHRSS and eight other departments jointly issued guiding opinions on protecting the labor rights of new-employment-form workers. In February 2024, the ministry published three detailed guidance documents on rest and pay, labor-rule disclosure, and rights-protection services. That December, a State Council report on flexible and new-employment-form workers pledged to “quickly issue” a comprehensive measure and committed to a three-year plan to widen occupational-injury insurance coverage.
The political salience of the issue is longstanding. According to People’s Daily, Xi Jinping first pressed for action at a September 2020 grassroots symposium in Hunan, where a freight driver raised industry grievances directly. Within two months, four departments launched a special rectification of road checkpoints and height/width restrictions, and more than 2,000 “Driver’s Homes” were later established nationwide. The Central Social Work Department, created in 2023, has since overseen the building of 45,000 “warm ‘new’” service stations and 35,000 friendly communities, along with more than 3,000 one-stop mediation centers that have resolved over 30,000 disputes.
What the Draft Would Change
At its core, the regulation sets a “floor” of basic labor rights: equal employment and freedom to choose work, remuneration, limits on working time and intensity, rest, labor safety and hygiene, adverse-weather protection, vocational training, occupational-injury and social insurance, personal-information protection, and collective bargaining.
Several provisions stand out:
- Pay. Compensation, after factoring in the cost of workers’ own equipment, must not fall below the local minimum wage, and settlement cycles may not exceed one month. Enterprises may not charge handling fees for disbursement.
- Rest. After four consecutive hours of work, workers must be guaranteed appropriate rest. Firms must set reasonable daily and weekly maximum hours.
- Holidays and weather. Companies must pay above-normal compensation on statutory holidays and provide high-temperature subsidies, and may not force workers into unsafe outdoor work in adverse weather.
- Discipline. The draft encourages positive incentives and bars the abuse of fines, downgrading, or account bans as punitive measures.
The draft also creates a three-category classification of platform work. Where a labor relationship exists, labor law applies and a contract is required. Where no labor relationship exists but the platform organizes work through rules and instructions, an employment agreement must be signed—and a tripartite agreement where a third party jointly manages the worker. Individuals who freelance or run their own business via platforms are explicitly excluded from the measures.
Targeting the Algorithm
Perhaps the most consequential section addresses the algorithms that allocate tasks and set pay—the phenomenon Chinese discourse calls being “trapped in the algorithm” (困在算法里).
The draft establishes an “algorithm-neutrality” principle. It requires firms to uphold people-oriented, fair, and safe values; to take stakeholder views into account; not to use significantly abnormal data as a general assessment indicator; and not to make decisions that harm major worker interests by algorithm alone. Companies must explain the basic principles, influencing factors, purpose, and main operating mechanism of algorithms that affect workers’ rights.
It further bans algorithmic discrimination in task access and compensation, and stipulates that decisions involving major worker interests—such as cutting off dispatch or banning accounts—must undergo manual review, except in pressing public-safety emergencies, which still require prompt human follow-up.
“The draft requires enterprises to explain to workers the basic principles and operating mechanisms of algorithms, prohibits algorithmic discrimination, and stipulates that decisions involving major worker interests… must not be made automatically by algorithms and must undergo manual review,” Wang Tianyu, a researcher at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told CCTV News, describing the provision as a response to the “trapped in the algorithm” concern.
Closing Loopholes, Opening Channels
To prevent evasion of employment responsibility, the draft introduces a “responsibility-piercing” mechanism. Companies may not induce or force workers to register as sole proprietorships, sign contractor agreements, or dodge duties through multi-layer subcontracting or split management. Using third parties for pay, tax, or training does not change the enterprise’s employment responsibility. If a cooperating enterprise lacks legal business qualifications, the platform itself bears the employment responsibility.
The draft also innovates by imposing a monitoring duty on platform employment cooperation enterprises. If such an enterprise spots unreasonable labor rules harming workers and fails to raise or push for improvement, it may bear joint liability; if it objects and negotiates, liability may be reduced.
“To ensure the reasonableness of labor rules, the Measures innovatively introduce a monitoring obligation for platform employment cooperation enterprises,” Shen Jianfeng, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics Law School, noted in the same CCTV News report.
For dispute resolution, the draft requires firms to maintain internal communication and appeal mechanisms, with manual responses to worker objections—on pay, hours, assessments, or account bans—within 48 hours. Externally, it builds a one-stop mediation model spanning labor-dispute, people’s, administrative, and judicial mediation. Workers may complain to supervising authorities, seek arbitration, or sue, and may name both the platform and the platform employment cooperation enterprise as co-parties.
Industry Reception and What’s Next
Major platforms signaled support. A representative of Taobao Shangou said the company has built a nationwide rider-negotiation system and will “fully align with the new regulation’s requirements,” while a Didi representative called protecting drivers’ rights a “weighty responsibility” and pledged to make rules transparent and algorithms people-oriented, Xinhua reported.
Huang Kun, a researcher at the China Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said the provisions would push platforms to play a more positive role and help “shape a more wholesome and harmonious platform employment ecosystem.”
As a draft “for comment,” the provisions may still change before adoption, and enforcement details and penalties were not fully captured in published summaries. The public has until November 8 to submit views through the MOHRSS website, mail, or email. With an occupational-injury insurance pilot already expanded to 17 provinces and slated for nationwide rollout, the measure represents a decisive step in China’s effort to fold its sprawling platform economy—and the tens of millions who power it—into the formal social contract.