(Yicai) Feb. 20 -- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, which recently expanded into the takeaway sector, and its main rival Meituan will begin offering social insurance and other employee benefits to their delivery workers. The move marks a significant step toward standardizing the food delivery industry in China.

JD.com will start to pay social security fees for full-time riders in its takeaway business from March 1, the Beijing-based firm said yesterday. This will include endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance and maternity insurance, as well as one housing provident fund. It will also provide accident and health care insurance for part-time couriers.

In response, Meituan said later that day that it is building a social security information system for delivery riders, and it expects to start paying social security for full-time and regular part-time couriers from the second quarter.

The pair’s initiatives will play an exemplary role in the industry, spur takeout platforms to pay more attention to the treatment and welfare of couriers, and at the same time improve the long-term employment of deliverymen, which is conducive to the sustainable development of the takeout industry, Zhou Yu, director of the Department of Organization and Human Resources at the Business School of Renmin University of China, told Yicai.

In recent years, China has been promoting the protection of the labor rights and interests of those in flexible employment, including food deliverymen, couriers and ride-hailing drivers. In July 2022, China launched a pilot project for occupational injury protection for flexible workers. Meituan and Dada, a logistics unit of JD.com, were among the first seven companies to participate.

Some 10.2 million people were covered by the new occupational injury insurance as of the end of November last year, according to data released at the National Human Resources and Social Security Work Conference held at the end of last year.

This time round JD.com and Meituan are providing social security for delivery riders through a formal employment contract, which offers a more sound and solid guarantee than the one piloted previously, Zhou said.

In January, JD.com launched a takeaway service on its app, and after running a low-key operation for some time, it announced on Feb. 11 that it will offer a year free of commission fees to attract caterers to join its platform.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor