29 May, 2018
The gig economy is booming in China. In 2017, online food delivery platforms provided services to 256 million people with the market estimated to be worth over 37 billion US dollars. Ride-hailing giant, Didi has accumulated some 21 million licensed drivers on its platform, while its rival, Uber, had 7 million worldwide. Despite its momentum, the gig economy itself and those participating in it are facing certain legal challenges.
The biggest challenge concerns the nature of the contract the companies in the gig economy sign with freelancers. In several cases, although the companies did not enter into a labour contract with the freelancer, the courts ruled that there existed a de facto labour contract and that the companies should therefore bear certain liability.
This challenge is reciprocal.
For freelancers, first, often the platform is unwilling to sign a labour contract with them, in an effort to evade legal responsibilities.
Second, if the freelancer enters into contracts, of any nature, with several different platforms, he or she risks being recognised as having a part-time or service relationship with those platforms, and therefore may lose the benefits guaranteed by a labour contract.
Ying Wang, Partner, Bird & Bird
ying.wang@twobirds.com
