On the evening of May 17, the second lecture of "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures" was held online, which was organized by the CULR and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development. Professor Krzysztof Hagemejer from the University of Applied Science Bonn-Rhein-Seig was invited to make a presentation titled Debates and Policies on the Digital Employment and Social Security in Europe (with the particular focus on Poland). The lecture was attended by Professor Fu Deyin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the CULR and Professor Feng Xiliang, President of the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development, as well as more than 190 scholars, experts, teachers and students inside and outside the CULR.

In the concluding remark, President Fu Deyin expressed gratitude to Professor Krzysztof Hagemejer for his impressive presentation. He commented that the presentation gives a full picture of the statistical categorization, standards of categorization, significance, value and issues of the platform-based labor forces in the EU and Poland, and in particular provides a new perspective for legal definition and statistical categorization, which are highly enlightening. As the working style and lifestyle are changed by the digital economy, the existing rules, policies and practices stand to impact more or less, and only by focusing on the fundamental goal of protecting workers' rights and interests can we cope with various complex issues. He briefed the basic situation of the CULR to Professor Krzysztof Hagemejer and invited him to visit our university when the pandemic ends.

In the lecture, based on his own research, Professor Krzysztof Hagemejer explained the debates and policies on digital employment and social security in Europe. He introduced the scalability and heterogeneity of digital platform work in Europe, and the research progress on redefining worker categorization by limits of authority and economic risks discussed at the International Conference of Labor Statisticians. Subsequently, from the perspective of whether the self-employed workers of a digital platform are dependent workers or independent contractors, he carried out a profound analysis of the disputes of employers and trade unions in ILO's R198 Employment Relationship Recommendation, 2006, and used detailed data to analyze different models of social security for employees, contractors of civil law contracts and self-employed individuals in Poland, as well as the employment status of platforms in Poland. He noted that the EU currently has a draft directive proposing the standards for distinguishing between dependent employment and self-employment, and indicated that social security would be popularized in the future regardless of the form of employment.

In the consultation session, Associate Professor Guo Peng from the School of Public Policy and Management of the CULR outlined the situation of platform workers in China. She noted that since China's social insurance system is established on the basis of traditional labor relations, confirmation of labor relations means the recognition of workers' corresponding rights and interests of social insurance. Similar to the impact of new business forms on traditional labor relations, the social security system established thereupon bears the same impact. In her view, there are two primary solutions against such impact and challenges: to find an ice-breaking solution from the perspective of labor relations and to explore a path from the perspective of social security. She said that over the past several years China has intensively developed a series of security systems and documents for the workers of new employment forms, which are of empirical and reference value to other countries.

In the interaction session, Feng Xiliang, President of the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development, Liu Genghua, Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security and other attending experts raised questions and engaged in deep discussions on topics like the cases and EU directives in the presentation.

Krzysztof Hagemejer is a professor from the Department of Social Security at the University of Applied Science Bonn-Rhein-Seig, a lecturer of Collegium Civitas, Warsaw and the Chairman of the Editorial Board of International Social Security Review. He has over 40 years of experience in social policy research and policy-making, including nearly 30 years of experience in international social protection and policy development programs. He has served as an ILO official and an independent consultant and partner of other UN agencies. He specializes in the research of policies and organizations of social protection and labor market, including social protection economics and financing, policy design, social protection statistics, monitoring, assessment, modeling and forecast, as well as the development of related fields.

(International Office of Cooperation and Exchange)