Protection of Atypical Workers in the Platform Economy

Abstract

The platform economy has given rise to atypical labor relationships marked by formal autonomy and substantive economic dependence, challenging traditional “employee/self-employed” dichotomies in labor law. This paper analyzes how platform workers face classification dilemmas, with weakened personal, economic, and organizational subordination leading to inadequate social security, algorithmic opacity, and loss of collective rights. Drawing on international experiences like Germany’s “quasi-employee” framework and California’s ABC Test, it proposes a threefold institutional reconstruction: constructing a dynamic status determination system based on economic subordination and factual control, enhancing algorithmic regulation and data protection to address covert digital control, and establishing a tiered social security mechanism tailored to workers’ dependency levels. These measures aim to balance worker autonomy with protective safeguards, adapting labor law to the hybrid nature of platform work.