Platform Workers as Users: Protection Mechanisms and Its Construction

Platform workers have the dual status of “workers” and “users” because of their reliance on platform applications in the process of providing their services.From the perspective of “user-service provider”,platform enterprises and platform workers constitute a transactional relationship with information technology services as the subject matter.However,under the combined effect of platform power,network effect and lock-in effect,the status of the two parties in this transaction relationship is substantially unequal,and it is difficult to realize the rights of platform workers as the subject of the transaction,such as the rights to fair trade and free choice,and the order of the transaction is precarious.The user protection mechanism of platform workers is precisely to take this as an entry point,and within the framework of the existing positive law,fully draw on the existing institutional practice experience at home and abroad,to form a system of institutional practice that consists of the consumer rights and interests protection approach,personal information protection approach,and anti-monopoly law protection approach,and is aimed at maintaining the order of transactions and correcting the inequality of status of the subject of the transaction,with the aim of compensating for the institutional crack between the protection mechanism of laborers and the reality of the economic and social transformation,and ultimately realizing the goal of the protection mechanism.The aim of this system is to bridge the gap between the labor protection mechanism and the realities of economic and social transformation,and ultimately to realize a more comprehensive and effective protection of the rights and interests of platform workers.