ILO supports online technical exchange between China and Portugal on social protection coverage extension for platform workers

BEIJING (ILO News) – Within the context of the EU-China Project “Improving China’s institutional capacity towards universal social protection (Phase 2)”, funded by the European Union, the International Labour Office (ILO) in Beijing organized on 9 May 2024, in collaboration with ILO Office in Lisbon, an online technical exchange session between Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) of China and Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSSS) of Portugal around recent reforms and challenges to extend social protection for platform workers and workers in new forms of employment.

Officials from MOHRSS, including researchers from Chinese Academy of Social Security (CALSS), and Chinese Enterprise Confederation (CEC) attended the technical exchange session from the Chinese side, while officials from MTSSS, including its Strategy and Planning Office (GEP), Directorate General for Social Security  (DGSS), Directorate General for Employment and Industrial Relations (DGERT) and Labour Conditions Authority (ACT) presented the current legal framework and recent reforms that took place in Portugal to effectively extend coverage for platform workers and workers in new forms of employment.

The fruitful technical exchange between Chinese and Portuguese experts organized with ILO support provided valuable inputs to feed the on-going research on how to extend social protection coverage to platform workers in China and opened the space to further strengthen bilateral collaboration between China and Portugal on issues related to social protection.

As one of the main objectives of the EU-China Project “Improving China’s institutional capacity towards universal social protection (Phase 2)”, funded by the European Union, ILO will continue to promote technical exchanges between China and EU Member States on issues related to best practices on social protection.