\n<\/p>\n
Xu, the migrant worker seeking physical gig work at the Xinqiao site, is a case in point. He has no social insurance in Shanghai. No contract. No pension contributions.<\/p>\n
There is an option for workers to pay into Shanghai’s employee social insurance as flexible workers. But they would have to cover both the employer’s share and their own.<\/p>\n
For someone earning 200 yuan a day with no guarantee of work tomorrow, this would be tantamount to, as Sun put it, “asking someone who can barely survive to save\u201d.<\/p>\n
An occupational injury insurance pilot, initially targeting platform workers like delivery riders, covered 23.25 million people across 17 provinces as of October 2025, according to a State Council report.<\/p>\n
Authorities announced in March that it would be expanded nationwide. But the workers at physical gig stations, who are not attached to any platform, remain largely outside its reach.<\/p>\n
Sun said the existing legal and institutional framework for protecting these workers is “a blank slate\u201d.<\/p>\n
“Their desire to work should be respected – you can’t simply strip them of or restrict their employment rights,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But the protections during their labour process need to be strengthened.”<\/p>\n
Without coverage, the consequences fall on the workers themselves.<\/p>\n
“Some elderly workers just endure it and don’t seek medical care,” Sun said. “It becomes serious. Some even lose their lives.”<\/p>\n
Urban pension schemes require 15 or more years of cumulative contributions. Workers in their 50s and 60s with fractured employment histories would not qualify.<\/p>\n
When they are no longer able to do physical gig work, many return to their villages, relying on a rural pension of about 100 to 200 yuan a month – funded from state coffers – supplemented by subsistence farming and support from their children, if any.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n