Ms. Chen from Fengtai District, Beijing used to work as an assembly line worker in a clothing factory. She not only had to work hard every day, but also had strict attendance checks. Later, when the factory moved to another city, she didn't want to leave her hometown. So, she rented a vacant room on the first floor of a nearby community and opened a handmade clothing store in March last year, which relied on referrals from old customers. After opening the store, community legal service volunteers customized relevant service agreements for her, specifying the project, schedule, price, and repair responsibilities to avoid possible disputes. After registering and filing in the community, residents have gained more trust, and the customer base of the clothing store has doubled compared to before. Ms. Chen's experience is a vivid reflection of China's efforts to strengthen the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of flexible employment personnel. According to estimates, the number of flexible employment personnel in China has exceeded 200 million. As an important component of China's employment market, flexible employment injects strong vitality into economic and social development with its low threshold, flexible form, and strong adaptability. It not only broadens the employment channels for workers, but also provides flexible and efficient employment support for enterprise development. Experts interviewed by the Legal Daily believe that the healthy development of flexible employment cannot be separated from the protection of the rule of law. By building a sound institutional system in accordance with the law and implementing precise supervision, it is possible to solve the dilemma of some flexible employment personnel being "used but not managed" and "working too much but with little guarantee", and promote the profound transformation of flexible employment from the past "extensive development" to the current "standardized and orderly". Building a legal framework: Journalists have found that in recent years, China has built a comprehensive and multi-level legal protection system based on the actual development of flexible employment, and has defined clear development boundaries for flexible employment. In 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and eight other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Safeguarding the Labor Security Rights and Interests of Workers in New Forms of Employment", which divides platform employment into three situations at the national level: those that comply with established labor relations, those that do not fully comply with established labor relations, and those that are civil relations. This provides sufficient employment autonomy for flexible practitioners who operate independently and policy guidance for regulating platform employment. In 2025, the State Council's report on the protection of the rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment proposed that China will promptly introduce measures to safeguard the rights and interests of workers in new forms of employment, and further improve the system for safeguarding the rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment. On January 27th of this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security held a press conference announcing that China will formulate the "Basic Rights and Interests Protection Measures for Workers in New Forms of Employment", further clarifying the labor standards and enterprise labor protection responsibilities for new forms of employment. Lawyer Guo Zheng, a member of the Legal Expert Database of the Rule of Law Daily and a partner of Beijing Tianchi Juntai Law Firm, believes that the hierarchical classification regulation has completely ended the "no rules to follow" state in the field of flexible employment. The relevant guidance has clarified the definition standards of different employment relationships, prohibited platforms from avoiding employment responsibilities through contracting operations, guiding the registration of individual industrial and commercial households, and cooperated with relevant social security subsidy rules to make the rights and interests between platforms, cooperative enterprises, and workers clear, laying a solid institutional foundation for the standardized development of flexible employment. The optimization of social security coverage and the improvement of dispute resolution mechanisms are important supports for the development framework. In 2025, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Ensuring and Improving People's Livelihood and Focusing on Solving the People's Anxiety and Worry, which proposed to strengthen the main role of social insurance in the social security system, improve the social insurance system for flexible employment, migrant workers, and new forms of employment, and completely eliminate the registered residence registration restrictions on participating in social insurance in places of employment. At present, some cities have set up a smooth transition period and implemented flexible payment rules, making "guaranteeing following people" a reality. In addition, according to statistics, as of the third quarter of 2025, more than 3000 one-stop mediation centers for labor disputes in new forms of employment have been established nationwide, with a cumulative mediation of over 30000 disputes. Xu Jiping, a member of the Lawyer Expert Database of the Rule of Law Daily and Deputy Director of Beijing Lianggao (Shanghai) Law Firm, said: "From the convenience of social security participation to the smoothness of rights protection channels, from the democratization of algorithm rules to the protection of occupational injuries, frontline practice has fully proved that the rule of law is not only a 'hard constraint' for regulating the development of flexible employment, but also a 'soft support' for safeguarding the rights and interests of workers. Flexible employment is no longer a 'helpless' employment method, but a warm and solid career choice." Two years ago, Master Li from Hubei worked at a massage parlor, not only had to take away a lot of commission from the store, but also had to comply with strict working hours. When encountering difficult customers, he often had to deal with them. I can only swallow my pride. Later, he obtained a formal massage therapist certificate and began to engage in on-site massage services, only serving regular customers and customers referred by regular customers. Master Li said that since choosing flexible employment last year, all the income belongs to himself, which is twice as much as working in a store; Being able to independently choose customers, refuse unreasonable demands, and work with more dignity; Time is highly flexible, balancing family and health, truly achieving the goal of 'work serving life'. Flexible employment can also be insured, quickly compensated, and protected against occupational injuries. ”Master Li said. To standardize the development of flexible employment, it is necessary to unleash employment vitality while safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers. In December 2024, the Supreme People's Court issued the first batch of guiding cases on labor disputes in new forms of employment, clarifying the criteria for determining labor relations in new forms of employment. For cases where there are employment facts that constitute dominant labor management, labor relations shall be recognized in accordance with the law to ensure that workers enjoy their labor rights and interests in accordance with the law. In April 2025, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and nine other departments jointly issued a notice on expanding the pilot program for occupational injury protection for new forms of employment, deciding to expand the pilot program for occupational injury protection. Unlike traditional work-related injury insurance, "new occupational injuries" are directly paid by platform enterprises, adopting a billing method based on individual orders and monthly declaration of payment volume. It is neither based on the existence of labor relations nor on the total salary as the payment base. The above notice specifies that within three years, we will gradually promote the pilot expansion of occupational injury protection from three dimensions: expanding provinces, adding new enterprises, and expanding industries, in order to further grasp, accurately grasp, and firmly secure the bottom line of occupational injury protection. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released the "Interim Provisions on the Protection of Basic Rights and Interests of Over aged Workers (Draft for Public Solicitation of Opinions)" in July 2025, which clarifies the scope and level of protection of basic rights and interests of over aged workers. Currently, some places have introduced regulations to address the protection of the rights and interests of over aged workers. For example, Jiangsu Province explicitly requires employers to pay separate work-related injury insurance for overage workers; Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province is exploring a supplementary mechanism for commercial insurance for occupational injury protection for overage personnel. Guo Zheng stated that the implementation of the occupational injury protection system has filled the social insurance gap for workers in new forms of employment, and is an important manifestation of the rule of law's rigid system to protect the basic rights and interests of workers. The formulation of relevant regulations helps to provide clearer legal basis for the labor remuneration, occupational injury protection, and other rights and interests of over aged workers. In recent years, China's institutional construction in the field of flexible employment has formed stable rules for flexible employment, effectively reducing labor disputes and laying an important foundation for building harmonious labor relations, "said Shen Jianfeng, a professor at the Law School of Central University of Finance and Economics in an interview Regarding the issues of insufficient social security coverage and difficulty in resolving disputes in the field of flexible employment, Xu Jiping suggests that we should first continue to promote full coverage of occupational injury protection, increase pilot promotion efforts, and gradually achieve nationwide, industry wide, and enterprise wide coverage, so that all new forms of employment workers can enjoy occupational injury protection; Secondly, we need to further revise the social security payment policy. In addition to canceling the restrictions on registered residence, we can also set up a prepayment system, implement "payment by order and proportion", and reduce the pressure on flexible employees to pay social security through government subsidies, platform borne part of the costs and other ways; Finally, it is necessary to continuously open up channels for safeguarding rights, establish a special channel for labor disputes in new forms of employment, expedite the handling of related cases, encourage professional lawyers to provide legal assistance, and reduce the time and economic costs for workers to safeguard their rights. In terms of long-term supervision, it is necessary to implement a cross departmental collaborative supervision mechanism, improve the platform's employment situation reporting system, achieve dynamic supervision throughout the entire process, and refine the boundaries of rights and responsibilities for 'incomplete labor relations'. By relying on the' Management Measures for Employment Subsidy Funds' and other measures, we will increase vocational skills training efforts, combine with the standardized construction of the gig market, and promote high-quality development of the industry while maintaining the advantage of flexible employment. ”Guo Zheng added. Reporter's note: Ms. Liu, an individual vendor in Chongqing, completed the registration, filing, and standardized operation notification of her stall at the convenience service point on the street. She now has a fixed and standardized stall, and her business order has become more stable. She also feels more at ease and no longer has to play the "cat and mouse game" of occupying the street for business; Lao Zhao, a migrant worker in Hebei Province, has been connected to the "gig supermarket" in the village for work, with clear agreements on salary settlement and job requirements. The staff has assisted in the entire process, effectively avoiding labor disputes... The subtle changes that I learned about in the daily work of flexible workers during the interview are a vivid reflection of China's flexible employment field moving from extensive development to standardized and orderly development, and a true portrayal of the rule of law safeguarding flexible employment. From the past 'someone uses but no one manages', to now having protected rights and channels for safeguarding rights, China's flexible employment sector is sailing under the rule of law, achieving a transformation from' extensive development 'to' standardized and orderly ', and becoming an important component of the employment market. Hierarchical classification regulation is the key to regulating flexible employment under the rule of law. China has defined three types of employment situations for platforms and established standards for determining labor relations, which not only provides a labor law "protective umbrella" for workers managed by platforms, but also reserves flexible space for self-employed practitioners. The pilot expansion of the occupational injury protection system has filled the social security gap for non labor relations practitioners, and provided legal basis for the protection of the rights and interests of over aged workers. It is worth noting that the rule of law does not mean sacrificing the "flexibility" of flexible employment, but rather finding a balance between security and vitality. The flexible social security payment rules are adapted to the income characteristics of flexible employees, and the penetrating supervision focuses on the employment facts to prevent the platform from "de labor relations". The "gatekeeper" system of the top platform consolidates the responsibility of rights protection from the root. It can be said that the legal construction in the field of flexible employment in China is becoming increasingly perfect. The rule of law not only sets the "red line" and "bottom line" for the development of flexible employment, but also injects sustainable development momentum into it. Under the protection of the rule of law, flexible employment will no longer be a "temporary choice", but a more stable, secure, and dynamic form of employment. It will not only provide more employment opportunities for workers, but also continuously inject new momentum into the high-quality development of China's economy and society, enabling every flexible worker to achieve a beautiful vision from "employment" to "contentment". (New Society)