Realizing Decent Work for Platform Food Delivery Workers in China
Labor Rights in the 21st Century International Conference (Montevideo, Uruguay, 20–21 November 2026)
As the overwhelming majority of platform-mediated workers are not legally classified as formal employees, they rarely have minimum wages or any kinds of occupational benefits, such as pensions and health insurance. Social security, in essence, represents part of the cost of the reproduction of labor in that it supports workers through times of illness, injury, and old age. Hence, workers outside of the formal protective system rely exclusively on their own earnings and savings, or family assistance, if any. Worse, speeding and deadly accidents are linked to the intensification of work, especially when the platform app dictates an unreasonably short delivery time. The proliferation of insecure work and informal employment is a profound concern.
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