Legislature mulls amendment to workplace safety law

China's top legislature is considering making it compulsory for companies in platform economies to be responsible for workers' safety, as it mulls over a draft amendment to the Law on Workplace Safety.

Enterprises in emerging economic sectors, such as the platform or "gig" economy should establish a responsibility system for workplace safety that covers all people involved in these sectors, according to the draft, which submitted on Monday to an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for a second reading.

In a move to address an issue where some companies don't have specific supervising authorities, county or higher levels of governments can designate government bodies that oversee their work safety, it said.

As the platform economy booms, an increasingly large number of people choose to make a living in this sector, such as car-hailing services. But although they get business orders via such platforms, there is no traditional employment relationship between these people and platform economy companies, leaving a large number of workers uncovered by the country's workplace safety supervision system.