Hong Kong proposes legislation to strengthen work injury protection for delivery platform workers

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Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said the proposed legislation aims to provide statutory protection for platform workers while taking into account the affordability of platform operators.

Hong Kong's Labour and Welfare Bureau has submitted a paper to the Legislative Council (LegCo) outlining proposals to improve the work injury compensation mechanism for digital platform workers engaged in food and goods delivery services through new legislation.

Earlier speaking to the media after an event, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said that given the distinct working arrangements of platform workers compared with traditional employees, it is necessary to establish a clear compensation framework that protects workers while remaining affordable for platform operators and based on fair and transparent calculation methods.

Under the proposal, statutory protection will cover platform workers who sustain injuries or die as a result of accidents arising out of and in the course of performing platform work. The legislative framework will be guided by three key principles:

• the compensation mechanism shall provide clear legal foundation and certainty to the protection afforded to platform workers who sustain injuries or die as a result of work;
• the coverage, items, and details of compensation shall enhance the protection for platform workers while taking into consideration the affordability of platform operators; and
• the implementation arrangements should be simple, easy to understand and administer so as to minimise disputes over compensation.

Taking into account the unique nature of delivery platform work, the covered work period will be defined as the period between the platform worker starting to depart for the designated location to perform a pick-up task and the food / goods having been delivered to the designated location (covering the period of time the platform worker is on the way back to the vehicle used after the delivery of food / goods), or the specified period of time in case of cancellation of order. Individual platform operators may consider and decide whether the period of time during which platform workers are waiting or competing for orders would be included in the work period covered.

Regarding protection under adverse weather conditions, as the period of time after a platform worker starts to commute to a designated location to perform platform work is within the work period and covered by work injury protection, it is not necessary to specify additional work injury protection under adverse weather conditions for such work period.

However, if a platform worker sustains an accident when commuting from where he/she performs platform work to his/her place of residence within four hours immediately after the delivery work is completed and Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8 or above or a red / black rainstorm warning signal or an “extreme conditions” announcement by the Government is in force at the time of the accident, the platform worker will be entitled to work injury compensation.

In view of the characteristics of platform work, the Labour Department has proposed that work injury compensation payable to platform workers shall be calculated as follows:

• If a platform worker is working for multiple platforms at the time of work accident, the platforms involved shall apportion the liability for compensation.
• As platform workers are mostly engaged in casual delivery work, the requirement similar to the minimum monthly earnings under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance (ECO) is not applicable in the calculation of periodical payments to platform workers during the period of work injury sick leave to prevent the periodical payments payable to casual workers from being unreasonably higher than the earnings received from engaging in platform work.
• In the calculation of the amount of compensation for death and compensation for permanent total incapacity, the minimum amount of compensation (HK$514,510 and HK$584,220 respectively) and the monthly earnings ceiling (HK$38,670) under ECO are applicable to compensation payable to platform workers.

Sun added that factors such as a platform worker's length of service and whether they were working for a single platform or multiple platforms at the time of the accident should be taken into account when calculating compensation.

He said the Government is pressing ahead with drafting the legislation and finalising implementation details, with a view to introducing the legislative proposal into the Legislative Council within this year.