In the second year he came to Beijing as a food delivery driver, Fu Lei felt that it "seems not bad" to do such a job for a few more years.
A few days ago, he had just celebrated his 20th birthday.
For the young Fu Lei, the "flexible employment" type of delivery worker means considerable salary and full freedom, but there are also many uncertainties.
Fu Lei is a microcosm of flexible employment.
According to the latest figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2021, there were 200 million flexible workers in China, of which about 13 million were delivery riders, accounting for nearly 1% of the national population base.
This group is being seen.
On March 11, Premier Li Keqiang mentioned the phenomenon of "flexible employment" in his answer to a reporter's question.
"It's really hard for them to come and go in the wind and rain." Li Keqiang said that perfect policies should be gradually adopted to "fasten seat belts" for these riders.
"Let the new forms of employment such as flexible employment not only relieve the urgent need, but also stimulate the vitality and creativity of the market and society."
Flexible employment forms such as takeaway riders have expanded the employment capacity and played the role of a reservoir.
However, with the rise of the Internet age, crowdsourcing platforms have also emerged.
On the one hand, there is flexible employment, but on the other hand, there is no "five insurances and one housing fund". The development of crowdsourcing platforms has also been discussed to this day.
According to experts, at present, most people with flexible employment have not been included in the scope of protection of labor law, so the relationship with the employment platform is adjusted according to civil legal norms.
Flexible employment groups such as takeaway riders do not have much problems in terms of labor remuneration, but generally work hours are too long. In addition, work-related injury insurance is insufficient, and there will be problems in medical care and pensions in the future.
The sense of gain when the account arrives the next day
After graduating from high school at the age of 19, Wen Jun entered a small business with an initial salary of only 1,500 yuan.
After several years of hard work, the practical and capable Wen Jun became the team leader, and his days in the factory were as stable and peaceful as ever.
The change happened in the 4th year: Wen Jun got married, and his monthly salary of several thousand yuan became "shabby". After discussing with his wife, he quit his stable job and came to the big city to make a living.
Now Wen Jun is 35 years old and has been delivering food in Beijing for more than 5 years.
After a long period of experience accumulation, Wen Jun can now quickly distinguish the difficulty of order delivery, the speed of the merchant's meal delivery, and the shortest route in the delivery process.
Coupled with the average daily work intensity of more than 10 hours, Wen Jun's monthly income can exceed 10,000.
"When the market was good in the past few years, I paid 5 yuan for a single order. If I work for a longer time, my income will be around 15,000 yuan in a few months."
Although he left his hometown alone and worked up to 10 hours a day, Wen Jun felt a great sense of accomplishment. As a father of two children, he could send home more than 7,000 yuan per month to provide sufficient education funds for his children.
Wen Jun said that his biggest wish now is that his child can go to college.
However, there are not many riders like Xiao Wen with a monthly salary of tens of thousands.
A number of takeaway riders told Shell Finance reporters that under normal circumstances, riders who work more than 10 hours a day can get a salary of more than 10,000 yuan, and most riders will pick orders or take a day off every few days.
The 37-year-old Zhang Changlin is often referred to as the "Single King" by his cyclists.
Every morning, Zhang Changlin rides an electric car to start his day's work, and only gets off work at 10 p.m. when there are sporadic orders.
"Others will pick the order, which one is better to send, he is different, and he will accept all the orders."
In the eyes of cyclists, Zhang Changlin walked in a windy way and spoke very fast.
When talking with a reporter from Shell Finance, Zhang Changlin recalled that he had worked on the construction site for more than 10 years.
If we compare the differences, the income method of the delivery staff is obviously superior: generally, they work on the construction site as soon as they have work, and they settle bills on a quarterly basis.
Zhang Changlin already has three children, and his wife takes care of the children full-time at home. In recent years, he bought a large house in his home county, and the monthly mortgage has also become the driving force for him to keep running.
At the age of 31, Zhang Changlin started to deliver food at the recommendation of his co-workers, and it took 6 years to deliver.
In his opinion, the biggest advantage of choosing to deliver food is that the salary will be credited to the account the next day, so he knows how much he does every day.
Zhang Changlin was immersed in the days of being activated, basically all month long.
Every time he remits money to his home, he hears that the children's grades have improved a little, and he can't help feeling a sense of accomplishment in his heart.
Crowdsourcing "Army": Occupational Bottleneck and Lack of Guarantee
At 11 a.m., downstairs in a food court in Beijing, Fu Lei leaned on the battery car, refreshed the order dispatching software with his mobile phone from time to time, and grabbed the order that was good for delivery.
Fu Lei felt that it was good to be his own "boss" without having to work for others.
A few days ago, Fu Lei celebrated his 20th birthday, and this is his second year as a food delivery driver in Beijing.
Previously, Fu Lei had worked 6 jobs - helper, entered an electronics factory at the age of 16, apprenticed in a restaurant, gave up cooking to go to a bathhouse, and finally moved to Beijing as a security guard.
Coming to and from get off work on time and on time has become a prison, and the frequency of 6 jobs is maintained for one or two months.
The 2020 Beijing News think tank survey shows that the freedom of working hours is the most satisfying for takeaway riders, accounting for 63.58%; followed by stable income and high income, accounting for about 40%; low threshold / low skills required for work is also a major problem. lure.
Wen Jun graduated from high school.
In the interviews with Shell Finance reporters, many deliverymen began to go out to make a living after graduating from junior high school.
The questionnaire shows that about 40% of the food delivery riders have a junior high school education, and only 5.4% have a bachelor degree or above.
In addition, over 60% of takeaway riders have already started a family.
Zhang Changlin said that for most men with lower education levels and certain family burdens, food delivery may be the "best" job they can do.
This is also a major reason for Wen Jun and Fu Lei to enter the industry.
"Earning 10,000 yuan a month and renting 500 yuan, the restaurant merchants will give riders a discount, only 30 yuan a day, so I can save more than 8,000 yuan a month."
Sun Zhiyong's savings plan records his daily expenses in detail.
And the merchant's "20% off food for takeaway riders" is also regarded by him as "exclusive warmth".
Sun Zhiyong, 26, has been delivering food for more than two years.
Frequent dealings with restaurant owners gave him the idea of starting a business - planning to save a few more years of money, then go back to his hometown to open a small restaurant, get married and have children.
With a good income, most of the riders have future plans.
A number of riders told Shell Finance reporters that the job of food delivery is difficult to take as a long-term career choice due to the lack of relevant guarantees and "backgrounds", and it can only be a transitional stage in life.
"Young people are okay to deliver food for a while as temporary workers, but it is difficult to change after a long period of time. You still have to learn a skill."
Rider Zhao Lin is looking for other "way to make money" while delivering food.
A reporter from Shell Finance learned from an interview that at present, takeaway riders are mainly divided into special delivery and crowdsourcing. Basically, they do not sign contracts directly with the platform. They are mostly dispatched by third-party companies. Funds and other guarantees are generally only paid for work-related injury insurance.
Last year, crowdsourcing rider Han died suddenly during the delivery of food. Because he did not sign a labor contract directly with the platform, the platform’s 2,000 yuan humanitarian compensation brought the safety of flexible employment to the forefront.
"No one cares about crowdsourcing, how many
(Continued) Just go to work.
"Li Bing didn't get up until 9:00 a.m., "We can go to and from get off work at any time, and there is no requirement for punching in and fines, but overtime and early delivery will be fined." The reason why he chose the crowdsourcing model instead of full-time, he said that it was mainly for freedom, not for Bound.
The crowdsourcing model refers to a company or institution outsourcing work tasks performed by employees in the past to unspecified people in a free and voluntary form.
Rider Xiaotian introduced that as long as the applicant has no criminal record, has a health certificate, downloads a hummingbird crowdsourcing APP, and pays a deposit of 99 yuan or 199 yuan after registration, they can start accepting orders.
Crowdsourcing is forming an army of workers. According to data, the ratio of delivery riders and crowdsourcing riders on the food delivery platform is basically 6:4.
"Five insurances and one housing fund should be required. There are many people in the country now in occupations like food delivery riders. After a few years, what will these people do when they are 40-50 years old? If the family is seriously ill, they can't even afford the money. Moreover, the probability of a traffic accident is also very high." Rider Liu Hua listed a series of concerns to reporters.
Unlike many riders who "do not know" and are unwilling to do so, the rider Fang Duanxin also wants social security, and also asks for a guarantee.
"Many riders will think that after working so hard for so long, as a result, so much is deducted into the social security account in a month, it is better to get all the money directly, and feel at ease." Fang Duanxin said that many riders need to see cash, and the platform basically Instant withdrawal.
Gao Hu is a rider who values real income more.
"It's impossible to do takeaways for a lifetime. It takes three to five years and a short period of one or two years. For example, if I earn 10,000 yuan now, after paying five social insurances and one housing fund, I may have 8,000 yuan left, but I pay five social insurances and one housing housing fund. Years are not consistent."
The deputy dean of the School of Labor Economics of Capital University of Economics and Business believes that, "At present, most of the flexible employment personnel are not included in the scope of labor law protection, so the relationship between them and the employment platform is adjusted according to civil legal norms. From practice Look, there is not much problem in terms of labor compensation and other aspects of flexible employment groups such as takeaway riders, but the working hours are generally very long; takeaway riders use transportation for a long time, and safety protection is a problem; in social insurance, work-related injury insurance is insufficient, and the future will be in medical care. There will also be problems with pensions.”
Model battle: who will bear the responsibility for safeguarding
The inclusiveness of the profession has made the scale of takeaway riders continue to expand.
Meituan’s financial report data shows that the total number of riders earning income through the Meituan platform has grown from more than 2.2 million in 2017 to 5.27 million in 2021.
Li Zhiqi, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of the revitalization international think tank, said, "Takeaway riders and other flexible employment groups are the direct practitioners of the platform economy and the most important front-line executives. They can be described as the hands and feet of the platform economy. , without them, the platform as a brain cannot function, and its importance is beyond doubt.”
The rapid expansion of the rider team is just a microcosm of flexible employment.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2021, there are 200 million people in flexible employment in China.
Li Yan, Dean of 58.com Recruitment Research Institute, told Shell Finance reporters that flexible employment is a new flexible employment model. Whether it is the flexibility of the time and number of workers, the flexibility of employment or management methods, the threshold for the concept of "employment" has been lowered. , broaden the scope of employment, and can attract more workers to work.
Flexible employment provides more options for further deepening mass employment and entrepreneurship.
In this regard, the scope believes that from the perspective of employment, flexible employment forms such as takeaway riders have expanded the employment capacity and played the role of a reservoir.
From the perspective of the labor market, this part of the employment has also produced unfair competition effects, because the platform operators, etc. bear the lower tax burden and social security costs, which indirectly leads to inequality with formal employment enterprises; In the field of formal employment, it is difficult and expensive to recruit workers.
Deng Jianbo, founder and CEO of the Youth League Club, a flexible employment recruitment service platform, told Shell Finance that flexible employees generally do not sign labor contracts due to their short working cycle, which makes salary disputes more likely, and it is more difficult to be supported and handled after disputes arise.
At the same time, in terms of insurance, whether it is an individual purchase or a business purchase, the process is more cumbersome, resulting in a lower purchase ratio.
Generally speaking, the salary protection and life insurance protection of flexible employees are relatively general.
"Platforms like Meituan and SF Express can increase employment, allowing some people to receive jobs and earn income. However, similar employment intermediary platforms serve (Meituan, SF Express) platforms, and their self-employed model solves (reduces) upstream platforms. It remains to be discussed how the labor costs of the workers and the rights and interests of workers (riders) are harmed. The so-called “no job creation” refers to these financial and taxation solution platforms, not Meituan and SF Express, etc.” A flexible employment intermediary platform Industry insiders are also rethinking the intermediary model.
In fact, labor relations disputes over flexible employment have a long history.
"There are various forms of relationships between these practitioners and platform companies, including labor dispatch, contracting, agency, etc. Labor relations are complex, and platform companies have different social security responsibilities, so it is currently the most difficult to protect the rights and interests of new employment groups. Solve the problem." Li Zhiqi mentioned.
As for flexible employment, according to the “Report on the Development of Flexible Employment in China (2022)” by Renmin University of China, in a broad sense, it refers to the employment arrangement of human resources allocation in ways other than standard employment, mainly divided into labor dispatch, business outsourcing, human resources Outsourcing, Internet platform employment, traditional odd jobs (part-time employment, part-time employment, daily employment, self-employment cooperation), internships.
The employment forms included in the employment of Internet platforms are relatively complex. Because some platforms (and third-party agencies) are more involved in production management, workers have a strong subordination to the platform (and third-party agencies), and there is a substantive labor relationship. , but most of the platform employment belongs to the labor/business contract relationship or the situation that "does not fully meet the situation of establishing labor relationship but the enterprise conducts labor management on the laborer".
"my country's flexible employment is still in its infancy. With unclear labor relations and an imperfect social security system, social individuals in flexible employment are faced with various pressures and risks. For example, delivery workers may need to meet at the same time. There are labor disputes on the platform, merchants and customers, in addition to the lack of employment security and satisfaction, and even the improvement of employment skills is not fully autonomous." Li Yan said.
To activate new forms of employment, flexible employment should also share responsibilities appropriately
The rise of the platform economy has created a large number of employment opportunities, and the number of new employment forms such as online delivery workers, online car drivers, truck drivers, and Internet marketers who rely on the Internet platform for employment has increased significantly.
"The unit price of flash delivery is high, the distance is long, and it makes more money than takeaway." Gao Hu has proposed to leave and plans to run flash delivery, "I can save 6,000 yuan a month, and if I work in Beijing for a few years, I can return to the second and third tiers. The city pays a down payment to buy a house, marry a wife and have children.
Occupations without a sense of belonging often "dissuade" some practitioners.
In terms of flexible employment, in addition to the absence of basic guarantees, the common problem is that the career development path is unclear and there is no promotion channel.
These relationships are currently being clarified.
In recent years, relevant departments have continued to promote the protection of labor security rights and interests of workers in new employment forms. During the National Two Sessions in 2022, the "Government Work Report" also proposed to strengthen flexible employment services, improve flexible employment social security policies, and develop new employment forms. Occupational injury protection Pilot.
Cities such as Beijing, as areas where workers in the new form of employment are more concentrated, are increasing their services.
The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions told Shell Finance reporters that in September 2021, the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions launched 10 measures to effectively safeguard the labor security rights and interests of new business formats and new employment groups.
In addition, since June last year, the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions has promoted 17 leading Internet platform companies such as JD.com, Meituan, and Didi, and 14 brand express companies such as SF Express and “Three Links and One Da” to establish labor union organizations, with a cumulative development of 27.4%. 10,000 new employment form workers members; more than 9,000 outdoor workers warm-hearted stations have been built; five free guarantees for major diseases and accidental injuries are provided for new employment form workers and other groups.
Recently, the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions released the "Key Points of the Work of the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions to Promote New Employment Forms of Labor Unions in 2022", which mentioned that it is necessary to build a strong organizational system to ensure that all the top 100 Internet companies operating in Beijing in 2021. Realize the establishment of the association; insist on "one step forward" in safeguarding rights, and effectively maintain the stability of the labor force in the new employment form.
Including three measures to build a harmonious labor relationship, maintain political security in the labor field, and pay close attention to the demands of employees.
Li Zhiqi believes that because of the different labor relationship structure, flexible employment cannot simply be solved by the platform side. However, from the perspective of undertaking corporate social responsibility, the platform side should guide partners to regulate the labor rights and interests of the employed people.
At the same time, new business formats have new characteristics, and all parties need to work together to improve relevant systems and laws to protect the legitimate labor rights and interests of all types of employed people.
"From the perspective of governing the country according to law, it is necessary to properly balance the labor costs of flexible employment and regular employment, and there should not be too much difference in the labor costs of the two forms of employment due to institutional reasons. At present, there are some irregularities in the job market. There is a phenomenon that some employed people give up regular employment and engage in flexible employment because of their immediate economic interests. In the future, in the field of social security, flexible employment should also appropriately share responsibilities.” Scope mentioned.
In Li Yan's view, in order to ensure the protection of workers' rights and interests, the first is to further optimize the three-tier adjustment model of labor law, reconstruct the functional division of labor law and civil law, and create a more benign and legal environment for the healthy development of flexible employment; secondly, Establish a vocational training system for flexible employment to open up more career paths for flexible employment; finally, improve the occupational social insurance system for flexible employment to provide more employment guarantees for flexible employment groups.
According to Liu Xinyang, vice president of Ele.me, the platform is promoting the vocational skill improvement training of the new business form of "online delivery staff" nationwide.
The courses include abnormal delivery handling, cleaning and disinfection of meal boxes, etc. There are both online teaching and practical lessons. After the training is passed, you can also receive special government subsidies.
In the second half of 2021, Meituan announced the launch of "four major measures" to help the professional development of riders, including Meituan rider vocational training and education program, stationmaster training plan, rider transfer plan, rider online learning platform and other career development measures .
It will provide riders with a full-cycle, multi-level career development path, take the initiative to break the existing career development model of the rider group, and continuously widen the radius of rider employment and career selection.
(The riders interviewed in this article are all pseudonyms)
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Chen Weicheng Cheng Zijiao Li Menghan