Exploratory Analysis of Multiple Labor Relations in China’s Internet Platform Economy

The rapid development of China’s Internet platform economy has generated a multitude of employment opportunities for platform workers. However, it poses profound challenges to the human resource management of Internet platforms: (1) How can labor relations between platform workers and platforms be defined? (2) How can the legitimate rights of workers be protected? (3) How can Internet platforms fulfill their human resource management responsibilities and obligations? Only a few studies have attempted to address such challenges. To address this gap through a comparative analysis of related studies, this study systematically analyzes the rights deficiencies of platform workers, especially in the areas of social security, organizational protection, occupational health, and fair remuneration. The aim is to investigate how best to protect and ensure the rights and interests of various platform workers and to identify the corresponding responsibilities that Internet platforms should bear. For analysis, we use Meituan, a typical Internet platform in China as an example, and our results show that there are complex and diverse labor-using forms and multiple labor relations on China’s Internet platforms, and protection of the rights and interests of platform workers is lacking. Our study puts forward the governance ideas for China’s Internet platforms of multiple labor relations and provides suggestions for the revision of relevant labor laws and regulations.