Systematic Reconstruction of Labour Rights Mechanisms under the Threshold of Hierarchical Classification: An Integrated Path Based on Legal Empowerment and Procedural Synergy

Abstract

Against the dual backdrop of the digital economy and population ageing, China's labour rights protection mechanism faces systemic difficulties, such as a recognition rate of less than 30 per cent for the labour relations of platform workers, a coverage rate of only 20 per cent for work-related injuries for overage workers, and an average annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent for labour dispute cases. The traditional labour law is based on the "subordinate" rights protection model, which is difficult to cope with the "de-labouring" employment pattern under the control of algorithms, resulting in "fragmentation of rights protection" and "procedure" of workers' rights and interests. As a result, the rights and interests of workers show the jurisprudential contradiction of "fragmentation of rights protection" and "procedural coordination failure". This study proposes a systematic reconstruction plan of "stratification and classification": at the level of stratification of legal subjects, three-dimensional criteria of age, industry and gender are constructed, and over-age workers (working ≥20 hours per week and relying on income for ≥50% of their working hours), platform practitioners (with significant algorithmic control), and women working remotely (with the right to be offline for 10 hours per day) are included in the protection of quasi-labour relations; at the level of protection of rights and interests, a systematic reconstruction plan is proposed. At the level of the rights protection system, core rights and interests are rigidly and flexibly adapted to derivative rights and interests through the transparency of algorithmic pricing (38% reduction in the complaint rate after the implementation of a platform), the delinking of work-related injury insurance from the fact of employment (the participation rate of a pilot project has increased to 61%), and the layered model of social insurance (mandatory participation in the basic healthcare system and the platform payment of occupational injury insurance); and at the level of the procedural synergy mechanism, relying on the blockchain At the level of procedural synergy mechanism, a full chain dispute resolution system is constructed by relying on blockchain (the number of labour complaints in a certain city has dropped by 42%), ODR online dispute resolution (the cycle has been compressed from 90 days to 15 days), and joint disciplinary action for breach of trust (the implementation rate of wage arrears will reach 78% by 2023). At the theoretical level, the system breaks through the traditional single framework of "subordination", and at the practical level, it is expected to cover 120 million workers and shorten the cycle of rights protection by 50%, providing a new paradigm of "layering of rights and synergistic procedures" for the modernisation of the rule of law in labour and corresponding to the regulation of the emerging industries such as meta-universe employment. It is of forward-looking value for the regulation of new industries such as meta-universe labour.