Study On The Relation Determination And Liability Attribution In Occupational Injury Protection For Workers In New Business Forms

While the business forms has facilitated people’s lives,promoted economic development and boosted employment,its large number of workers are exposed to occupational injury risks that are much higher than the national occupational injury accident rate in the same period.However,due to the lack of identification of employment relation,these workers are excluded from the existing occupational injury insurance system,lacking occupational injury protection,and are prone to poverty and return to poverty because of occupational injury.Therefore,establishing an occupational injury protection system for workers in new business forms is the urgent need of the current reality.In view of this,the academic circle has launched a heated discussion on labor relations between the digital platforms and the workers.However,a systematic investigation of the historical context,core connotations and causes of the employment relation has been neglected,and the conclusions have not yet been unanimous.Studies that contribute to the realization of occupational injury protection for workers in the new forms are often based on personal experience and lack a theoretical basis.The academic circle neglects the extended theoretical research which is in line with the labor practice in new business,resulting in the dilemma that theory lags behind practice.It is urgent for theoretical research to keep pace with the development of labor practice in new business.The core issue of establishing an occupational injury protection system for workers in new business forms is the determination of liability and the extent of liability,which needs to be based on the outcome of the determination of labor relations.If the two are not in an employment relation,the occupational injury is a personal accident and workers are liable for it themselves.If the two are in an employment relation,it’s necessary to carry out a comparison of the cost of prevention for different subjects,and the magnitude of the cost of prevention and the consequences of damage based on the Hand Formula.Liability is attributed to the party with the lower cost of prevention,thereby minimizing the social costs.Therefore,the design of the occupational injury protection system for workers in the new business forms must be resolved after the two logically related issues mentioned above,the determination of labor relations and the liability of occupational injury,have been resolved.Firstly,taking the delivery riders as an example,based on the origins of the subordination of the employment relation and the framework of transaction cost theory,and through in-depth interviews and the coding of more than 240,000 words of interview data with the help of NVivo 12,this paper found that the working time,place and content of labor force use of the specialized delivery riders are limited.In essence,the specialized delivery riders are employees who are controlled and dominated by the platform and transfer part of the labor use right to the platform.The working time,place and content of labor force use of the crowdsourcing delivery riders are not limited,and not controlled by the platform and are not in a employment relation with the platform.The platforms establish the specialized delivery mode on the consideration of stabilizing transport capacity,shortening delivery time and ensuring service quality,which saves the market transaction cost:waiting for the market workers to take orders,and even keep increasing the price to attract workers to take orders;workers are not familiar with routes and merchants,which prolongs delivery time and leads to loss of customers;monitoring the quality of service.The specialized delivery mode has management costs.However,due to the fierce competition,the survival of the platform depends on the retention of customers.In the long-term development,the cost of customer loss is higher.The platform reduces the total cost by saving more market transaction costs than increasing the management costs.Workers hold the opinion that the specialized delivery mode is more profitable based on stable income,stable order quantity,stable unit price,close delivery distance,higher wages for the same distance,station assistance,training,familiar with the routes and merchants.That is,they can earn a steady income,save the time and effort of searching for deals,and take no business risks.The reason why platforms and delivery riders choose the specialized delivery mode is in line with the cause of employment relation.The platforms establish the crowdsourcing delivery mode to save management costs.Although there are market transaction costs,this part of delivery riders only resolve the shortage of transport capacity in special time,which is occasional.The saved management costs are higher than the occasional market transaction costs,therefore the total cost is reduced.The choice of crowdsourcing delivery mode by workers means that they have autonomy to decide on working time,place and content,have loose penalty rules,and have quick payment,not subject to platforms’ control and domination.For workers who prefer freedom,the benefits are higher.To sum up,the qualitative research conclusion shows that the working process of specialized delivery workers conforms to the nature of employment relation,and the reasons for establishment of specialized delivery mode between platforms and workers correspond to the causes of employment relations.The specialized delivery riders are employees.While,the working process of crowdsourcing workers is not in line with the nature of employment relation.The reasons why platforms and workers establish the crowdsourcing delivery mode are contrary to the causes of employment relations.The crowdsourcing delivery riders are independent contractors.In addition,247 valid questionnaires were collected using RDS,and the sample was tested to be balanced and representative.The regression of the questionnaire data with the help of Stata 17 revealed that when choosing a job,the higher the value of stability is,the more inclined to choose to be a specialized delivery rider;the higher the value of reducing their own business risk is,the more inclined to choose to be a specialized delivery rider;the higher the value of freedom is,the more inclined to choose to be a crowdsourcing delivery rider.The quantitative findings support the qualitative conclusions why workers choose the specialized or crowdsourcing mode.On the basis of the relation determination,the study on the liability for occupational injury to workers in different types of new business forms is conducted.If platforms and workers are not in an employment relation,the occupational injury is a kind of personal accident and workers are liable for it themselves.If the two are in an employment relation,it’s necessary to carry out a comparison of the cost of prevention for different subjects,and the magnitude of the cost of prevention and the consequences of damage based on the Hand Formula.Liability is attributed to the party with the lower cost of prevention,thereby minimizing the social costs.Taking the traffic accident injury of specialized delivery riders as an example,this paper summarizes the causes and preventive measures of traffic accident injury of specialized delivery riders through in-depth interviews based on the four elements of road traffic system(people,vehicles,roads,and environment),and supported by questionnaire data.It’s found that platforms can prevent most of the causes of tight delivery time at a lower cost than the specialized delivery riders by adjusting the functional modules of the dispatching system and optimizing the management system.The cost of prevention of these measures is far from the damage of traffic accident injury to specialized delivery riders,thus platforms should be liable for the traffic accident injury.However,in view of emergencies and environmental impacts,excessive orders grabbed by riders,substandard electric vehicles purchased or self-refit,etc.,the cost for platforms to grasp information in time and make effective control is too high.At this time,the specialized delivery riders can prevent the traffic accident injury at a lower cost than platforms by taking necessary attention,obtaining appropriate order quantity,purchasing vehicles up to the standard and not privately refitting,etc..The cost of prevention of these measures is also much lower than the damage of traffic accident injury.Therefore,the specialized delivery riders ought to bear part of the liability.Based on the conclusion of this paper: crowdsourcing workers bear the risk of occupational injury themselves.As for the specialized workers,platforms should be liable for occupational injury,but the specialized workers themselves should also bear part of the liability.It can be reflected in the occupational injury insurance system design from three aspects: the level of contributions,the magnitude of the part paid by employer in compensation treatment,and the scope of occupational injury identification.This paper provides a theoretical perspective for the design of occupational injury protection system for workers in new business forms,and enriches the theoretical research on the liability and compensation of occupational injury insurance.