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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-09-05 07:00
Last update date: 2020-09-05 07:00
Earlier, a female Foodpanda delivery worker was found to have not seen a doctor after contracting the disease. She still worked 14 days as usual until her husband was critically ill and was sent to hospital for treatment.
The incident aroused concern. The reason behind the avoidance of doctors was that self-care employees were worried that they would be forced to quarantine, unable to work, and lose their income. Even if they developed symptoms, they would still be forced to go to work.
In fact, during the epidemic period, labor protection has not been perfected. Self-employed workers can be said to have worsened the situation. The government should face the problem squarely.
An employee of Deliveroo, another food delivery platform, said that the company set up a fund as early as January and February. Assuming that a delivery staff is unfortunately recruited, the company will distribute subsidies based on grain.
This arrangement seems to be "preferential treatment" compared to other companies, but this kind of basic labor protection that should have been given to employees by law has now become the company's "mind", and it is difficult to guarantee the ability to execute when the nature changes.
Not only self-employed workers, regular employees of companies under the epidemic may not be adequately protected.
The Director of the Bureau of Labor and Welfare Law Chi Kwong Kinkang listed the new crown pneumonia as an occupational disease. Employees who are infected at work can only seek compensation from their employers under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance.
But how effective is it?
According to statistics from the Industrial Injury Rights Association (Work Rights Association), as of August 20, there were at least 319 suspected work-related infections, most of which were dockers and catering workers.
However, as of August 22, of the 86 cases being followed up by the Labour Department, only 7 of the employers admitted responsibility. The large gap reflects the inadequate protection of most of the sick employees and the lack of targeted arrangements by the government. Luo Zhiguang said It is difficult to implement compensation under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance.
In order to protect the workers who stopped working, the government should propose more specific compensation and subsidy measures for contracting new coronary pneumonia at work.
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Uber drivers are another typical gig economy practitioner who owes labor protection.
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The government wants to catch up with the new economic model
With the development of science and technology and the emergence of new economic models, Hong Kong has more and more self-employed workers. However, not only do they lack labor protection during the epidemic, they also do not have enough protection on weekdays.
When answering questions from Members in 2018, Luo Zhiguang pointed out that the Hong Kong Government has no plans to expand the scope of the Employment Ordinance to cover flexible workers, leaving the rights and interests of more than 510,000 freelance workers in Hong Kong untouched.
In view of the popularity of this employment model, Western countries are striving to solve the shortcomings behind the "freedom" of this work model-insufficient labor protection.
The EU passed a law in April 2019, stipulating that companies must provide minimum guarantees for people participating in casual labor, such as basic working days and reference working hours, and compensation for cancellation of work. Member States have three years to promote the new law.
The California Senate passed a bill in September 2019 to include the state Supreme Court’s ruling last year on the logistics company Dynamex’s workers as contractors to do employee work, allowing companies to reclassify independent contractors as employees and be given leave.
Another example is the United Kingdom Court of Appeals that Uber drivers have no pricing power, Uber can indirectly manipulate drivers through algorithms and user ratings, ruling that drivers are employees rather than self-employed, and actively promoting legislation to protect the labor rights of such practitioners.
It can be seen that we are not unable to protect the rights and interests of self-employed workers. It is just that the Hong Kong government has not been aware of the growth trend and importance of this emerging employment economy, nor has it actively sought ways to protect such employees.
In 2018, the gig economy brought 1.3 trillion and 4.5 trillion US dollars in revenue to the United States and the world, respectively.
The World Bank also proposed at the end of 2018 that it is necessary to strengthen the protection of gig economy employees from exploitation by employers, but at the same time it cannot stifle the ability of the new economy to create jobs.
As Western society has begun to improve related issues, the Hong Kong government must study relevant legislation as soon as possible to provide freelance workers with the lowest level of protection, so as not to lag behind others in the development of labor protection and emerging economic models.
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New crown pneumonia Luo Zhiguang Uberdeliveroo household labor protection labor and welfare bureau gig economy 01 view
