Research On Legal Protection Of Couriers’ Right To Rest In The Digital Age

The fast-growing digital economy,bolstered by big data and the Internet,has created a large,flexible employment group,such as couriers,takeaway workers,ride-hailing drivers and web hosts etc.While this has revitalized traditional industries,it has also given rise to some new problems.For example,the express delivery industry,as the beneficiary of online shopping,has developed rapidly in recent years,but at the same time the issue of legal protection of the right to rest of couriers has become particularly prominent.This paper selects couriers as the research subject for the reason that the industrial model of express delivery industry is in transformation,i.e.on the one hand,the works of couriers are traditionally labour-intensive,and on the other hand,couriers require a specialised online platform to conduct their work.Based on this,the research approach of this paper is:firstly,to clarify the basic principles and concepts of the right to rest,secondly,to explore the practical problems concerning the legal protection of couriers’ right to rest,thirdly,to analyze the causes,and fourthly,to find a specific solution for the problems.Specifically,it includes the following four parts:The first part of this article introduces the basic principles of the rights to rest of couriers in the digital age.The part clarifies the basic definition of the rest right,introducing the constitution,characteristics and significance of the right to rest,and in particular elaborates the definition,subject,object and content of the right to rest.The second part mainly introduces the difficulties faced by the implementation of the legal protection of couriers’ right to rest in China.On the one hand,this section introduces the system of legal protection for the right to rest in China.With the Constitution as the paramount,sectoral laws as the focus,and specific documents as a supplement,this system aims to protect workers’ right to rest.On the other hand,a study of typical adjudication cases and literature shows that there are outstanding problems with the current legal protection of couriers’ rest rights,namely,excessive actual working hours,infringement of the right to rest and leisure,violation of the right to life and health,and great difficulty in safeguarding these rights.The third part of this paper analyses the causes of the above problems.The paper argues that there are four main reasons:firstly,the algorithmic technology used by online platforms unreasonably exploits the labour of couriers.Secondly,the enterprises capture the market through the price war and at the same time adopt the franchise system and irregular work system to avoid the main responsibility of employment.Third,couriers lack legal awareness and face livelihood challenges.Fourth,the protection mechanism is imperfect,with loopholes in the law,failures of remedy and supervision mechanisms.Based on the above,the fourth part proposes constructive solutions.Based on full reference to foreign legal practice,this part clarifies the basic principles of legal protection in terms of human rights protection,state obligations,corporate social responsibility and digital development,and thus proposes the following recommendations:firstly,the law should be improved by reforming the current legislative system,optimizing the working hours system and the rest and leisure system,and improving the accountability system for illegal act and infringement act.Secondly,the remedy mechanism should be perfected by encouraging enterprise autonomy,improving the mediation mechanism and labour arbitration system,refining the judicial remedy system.Thirdly,the channels of supervision should be enriched by innovating the labour inspection system,strengthening labour unions,diversifying the ways of supervision,emphasising social supervision and raising popularity of the law.