(Yicai Global) Feb. 18 -- China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is mulling amending its rules for work-related injury insurance to include new job actors such as food deliverers, ride-hailing drivers and couriers under the system's umbrella.

The number of these workers has reached tens of millions in tandem with the development of China's online economy. Many are in a flexible work relationship because of their special status. Their employers do not buy work-related injury insurance for them since they have not signed formal labor contracts.

Some new job providers do have conventional work relationships with their employees, the MOHRSS investigation discovered. For example, Shenzhen-based courier company SF Express (Group) pays pension, medical, unemployment, work-related injury, maternity insurance and housing provident fund benefits for employees signing employment contracts.

Ride-sharing platform Didi Chuxing has no such relationship with its drivers and therefore does not offer on-the-job injury insurance.

China amended its workplace injury regulations 2010, and these rules accordingly do not cover the novel jobs the new economy has spawned in recent years. MOHRSS will amend the regulations in a timely manner to resolve the problem of lack of work-related injury protection and other controversial issues emerging in actual practice, the agency pledged.

It will further explore the establishment of a multi-level work-related injury protection system led by the government and supported by commercial insurance companies and encourage insurers to develop innovative products targeting new job players, it said.

Editor: Ben Armour