플랫폼노동종사자에 대한 사회보장법적 보호 ― 산재보험법과 고용보험법을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

The platform economy provides opportunities and benefits that were previously unimaginable to all operators, workers, and customers. A business can expand its customers indefinitely and receive flexible workers, customers can meet their needs on the spot, and workers can easily find jobs at any time. In this way, the New World of Platform Economy creates infinite social and economic benefits, but as there is light and darkness, it causes serious social problems behind it. It is creating informal and temporary jobs called platform work, and platform workers are not recognized as employees, leaving them in blind spots of employment and labor law and social security systems. Ordinary employees can be paid regularly if they work during legal working hours, but platform workers are not subject to the Labor Standards Act, so they can work without time limits, and they are likely to work self-exploitatively to earn more. The most urgent problem is that platform workers are always exposed to the risk of accidents and unemployment. It may be encouraging at first glance that Korea's social insurance law has protection regulations that reflect some of the reality facing platform workers. The Industrial Accident Insurance Act provides special regulations for special type workers, opening the way for workers in 14 occupations if he/she works on his/her own without using others and is not exclusive to a particular employer. However, those who do not belong to 14 jobs are excluded from the protection, and it is difficult to meet the requirement for exclusiveness to a particular employer because most of the platform workers provide work for multiple business owners. The Employment Insurance Act seems to be a step forward from the Industrial Accident Insurance Act, but it requires also only 11 jobs to subscribe to employment insurance, leaving absolutely a large number of special employment workers excluded from the law. The special regulations on labor-providing platform operators, which come into force in 2022, are expected to impose an obligation on platform operators to apply for employment insurance, but the majority of platform workers with unstable employment are also expected to be excluded from protection. Therefore, the Industrial Accident Insurance Act will be able to protect platform workers from the risk of industrial accidents by eliminating the requirement for exclusiveness to a particular employer. Furthermore, the Industrial Accident Insurance Act and Employment Insurance Act must remove job restrictions so that all platform workers can be protected by the law.