"Thanks to the occupational injury protection, more than 3,000 yuan in medical expenses were reimbursed at once." In November 2023, Mr. Zhu, a takeaway rider in Zhongshan, Guangdong, collided with a truck while delivering food, causing a fracture of the distal end of the proximal phalanx of the first toe of his left foot. , multiple contusions and abrasions all over the body.
The next day, Mr. Zhu sent the accident report information to the platform company through the "one-click report" of the platform App, and the company applied for occupational injury benefits to the Zhongshan Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau through the national information platform.
A few days later, Mr. Zhu submitted the materials online and received the occupational injury confirmation conclusion on the same day.
“The speed is fast, the process is simple and convenient, and not complicated.” When interviewed by the Zhongshan Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Mr. Zhu exclaimed that the entire process from submitting the application for benefit payment, confirming the conclusion of occupational injury, to online settlement of medical expenses was completed online in one go.
What allowed Mr. Zhu to be compensated was the occupational injury protection pilot project implemented by Guangdong Province in July 2022 as required. The insurance under this occupational injury protection system is also vividly known as the "exclusive insurance for takeaway boys." . Over the past year or so, many delivery workers like Mr. Zhu have enjoyed this protection in the seven provinces and cities that have launched pilot projects for occupational injury protection.
Why can’t traditional social security “protect” new occupations?
Come rain or shine, takeaway boys are flying in the streets and alleys, delivering delicious food to hungry people.
Behind this convenience, the chaos caused by Feichi's algorithm mechanism, such as running red lights, speeding and even overexertion, has undoubtedly cast a cloud of occupational injury over their work.
Takeout and delivery vehicle accidents account for a considerable proportion of non-motor vehicle traffic accidents nationwide, and the incidence of occupational injury accidents in the industry remains high.
Relevant data from Beijing and Shanghai non-motor vehicle safety law enforcement inspections in 2022 show that speeding, driving in the wrong direction, running red lights, and driving on lanes are still persistent problems that plague urban non-motor vehicle traffic safety, especially couriers and takeaway riders.
In 2022, the average number of daily investigations and punishments against couriers and takeaway riders in Shanghai will reach more than 3,000, accounting for 20% of the total daily non-motor vehicle traffic violations.
Similar to this situation, there are also new employment forms of workers in other industries such as travel and intra-city freight, which are concentrated in new technologies such as the Internet and big data.
The results of the ninth national workforce status survey show that the number of workers in my country’s new employment form has reached 84 million, accounting for 21% of the total number of employees.
Compared with traditional employment, workers in the new employment form face more challenges in terms of labor relations, wage payment, and social insurance.
Taking platform employment as an example, various rights and interests protection issues have become increasingly prominent, and one of the focuses is the issue of occupational injury protection.
According to a survey conducted by Sun Ping, an associate researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and her team in Beijing in November 2020, 60% of the riders surveyed did not pay employee social security at that time, and labor security was almost in a "streaking" state.
"Full-time riders sign labor contracts with third-party companies, but third-party companies rarely pay five insurances and one housing fund for riders, while crowdsourced riders do not have labor contracts, let alone social security and other matters." Related to the food delivery industry people said.
"In the traditional social insurance payment mechanism, work-related injury insurance is entirely paid by the employer, but the identification of work-related injuries cannot be separated from the labor relationship as a prerequisite." said Lu Quan, secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Social Security.
For a long time, the issue of labor security in new employment forms has faced a huge "pain point", that is, the identification of labor relations requires personality, organizational and economic subordination. However, due to different work models, workers in new employment forms are subject to certain degree of management, but does not reach the management intensity of traditional labor relations, which brings great challenges to the identification of labor relations.
Secondly, major platform companies, labor outsourcing companies, etc. are layered on top of each other, and supporting cooperation, service outsourcing, labor dispatch, etc. are complicated. Although many employees have signed contracts, they do not know who their "employee" is. These problems As a result, it is generally difficult for employees to identify the labor relationship with the platform as a labor relationship, and they have no way to protect their rights when actual injuries occur.
To this end, in July 2021, eight departments including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Guiding Opinions on Safeguarding the Labor Security Rights and Interests of Workers in New Employment Forms", proposing to "organize and carry out pilot projects for occupational injury protection for flexible employment on platforms."
In December 2021, ten departments including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work on Occupational Injury Protection for Employees in New Employment Forms", identifying seven provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Hainan, Chongqing, and Sichuan. Launch a pilot program for occupational injury protection, and select riders, drivers and other groups from multiple companies in the travel, takeout, instant delivery, and intra-city freight industries to participate in the pilot.
The pilot will start on July 1, 2022, and the planned time is 2 years.
"my country's labor legislation began in the 1990s. Today, 30 years later, some new problems have gradually emerged." Han Wei, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, believes that workers have transformed from "organizers" to "social People", the security plan also needs to be "socialized" and cannot rely solely on the binding of labor relations.
In this context, occupational injury protection has come into people’s view.
What is the difference between it and the work-related injury insurance among the “five insurances”?
What is occupational injury protection, and how is it different from the common work-related injury insurance among the “five insurances”?
What does it mean for millions of workers with new employment forms?
"Before the introduction of occupational injury protection, once an accident occurred, riders who wanted to claim compensation had to first seek legal aid and conduct labor relations determination, arbitration, and litigation. Only after a series of processes can they get the compensation they deserve." Someone who assisted in the claim settlement case Ms. Liu, the company’s legal aid lawyer, said, “With occupational injury insurance, you have the same protection as a regular employee.”
Different from traditional work-related injury insurance, when the platform handles occupational injury protection for employees, it does not need to be bound to the labor relationship. It no longer uses the total salary as the payment base, but adopts a new calculation method-pay per order, Each order must be insured and each person must be insured, and the platform will pay according to the total order volume of the previous month.
This method of operation not only solves the problem that workers in the new employment form do not have work-related injury insurance, but also solves to a certain extent the problem that traditional work-related injury insurance does not provide 100% coverage.
In comparison, occupational injury protection can cover everyone and every order.
Even if a rider only delivers one order, he can still apply for occupational injury protection if he is injured during work.
In the era of the Internet economy, long-term and stable labor relations based on labor contracts are transforming into new labor relations based on task orders. The fixed-amount payment method based on orders adapts to this general trend.
"There has been a fierce debate in academia over whether there is a labor relationship between platforms and workers. However, theoretical exploration has no boundaries and social problems cannot wait. Occupational injury protection does not get stuck in academic entanglements, but jumps out of the identification of labor relations and points directly to The issue of occupational injury protection for platform practitioners most directly protects the interests of workers," Lu Quan said.
Prior to this, in response to the issue of occupational injuries, the platform deducted a certain amount from the daily commission of the rider as the premium of commercial insurance. In fact, the rider bore the employment risk of the platform company.
Generally speaking, occupational injury protection has been basically consistent with the benefits of work-related injury insurance, including medical rehabilitation benefits, disability benefits, death benefits, etc., protecting the rights and interests of workers to the greatest extent.
How to get money faster for occupational injury claims?
In addition, in interviews, many riders said that in fact, for them, if they encounter accidental injuries, what they fear most is trouble.
According to reports, a complete occupational injury protection process generally goes through accident filing, occupational injury confirmation, labor ability appraisal, and benefit assessment and payment.
"Guangdong Province implements the 'online one-time application' and 'offline province-wide application' service models for full-chain business. People with occupational injuries only need to apply online once to ensure that everything is settled and everything is responded to." Human Resources of Guangdong Province In the interview, Yang Fang, director of the Work-related Injury Insurance Division of the Department of Social Security (director of the Provincial Labor Inspection Office) and first-level researcher, also mentioned that Guangdong implements "full business process SMS notifications", "benefits can be enjoyed without applying" and "nearby medical treatment". The province's 1,100 work-related injury agreement agencies provide 100% online settlement services to settle medical expenses in a timely manner, effectively solving the problem of "advance payment and errands".
It is understood that occupational injury protection benefits mainly include three benefits: medical treatment, disability and death. There is no cap on post-injury medical expenses, occupational injury personnel with severe disabilities of grades 1 to 4 are included in the fund’s lifetime protection, and compensation for death due to occupational injuries exceeds one million yuan. , to achieve "low payment, high security" and highlight the comprehensive nature of the social security system.
Zheng Xuanbo, director of the Work-related Injury Insurance Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a press conference in the third quarter of 2023 that the pilot work on occupational injury protection for employees in the new employment form has achieved positive results since its launch.
As of the end of September 2023, a total of 6.68 million people have been included in the coverage, and 32,000 people have received occupational injury protection benefits worth 490 million yuan.
"As for how the emerging group of employees in the new employment form participates in social insurance, it should be said that the pilot has solved the problem, tried it first, and accumulated valuable experience. At the same time, relying on the basic data compiled by the National Information Platform for Occupational Injury Security, we have It provides important data support for work such as group employment services and social security expansion in new employment forms."
In Guangdong, all employees in the new employment form of enterprises in pilot industries have been included in the coverage of the occupational injury protection pilot system, and the pilot subjects are generally covered.
Yang Fang said: "The occupational injury protection pilot has fully exerted its protection function for platform enterprises and new employees. On the one hand, it has effectively protected the occupational injury rights and interests of employees in the new employment form, especially the insurance function for major casualties. . On the one hand, it also disperses the economic risks of platform enterprises and plays a positive role in promoting the standardized and healthy development of the platform economy."
Zheng Xuanbo said that the next step will be to guide the pilot provinces and platform enterprises to steadily promote the occupational injury protection pilot, and to carry out insurance registration, occupational injury confirmation, benefit payment and information management in an orderly manner.
At the same time, we will continue to make efforts to make occupational injury protection for employees in the new employment form more equitable, the system more sustainable, the service more convenient, and the responsibilities clearer. We will carefully summarize the experience and practices of the pilot, study the ideas for expanding the pilot, and provide occupational injury protection in the new employment form. The nationwide rollout has laid a solid foundation for work.
(Our reporter Qiu Yue, Yue Jiayi and Zhang Yun)