Freedom of time, income pressure
Having worked as a warehouse employee for a company specializing in imported fruits with a salary of nearly 10 million VND/month, Mr. Doan Duc Nam (from Tan Thuan commune, Hung Yen province) decided to quit his job in August 2025.
Immediately after quitting his job, Mr. Nam completed procedures to receive unemployment insurance and decided to become a delivery staff. A lot of work, proactively arranging time, not having to work night shifts are the advantages of the new job that Mr. Nam feels satisfied with. However, after 2 months, he began to "disillusioned".
“I started to lose strength, the number of orders was proportional to my income, so I did not maintain the form of the early days. Not to mention, because I am a laborer without contracts, I have to handle all risks myself. I was really confused when a colleague had a traffic collision on the way to deliver goods, medical examination and medicine costs, and car repair costs all had to be paid for myself. Not to mention, my friend spent weeks recovering, and it was also the same amount of time without income. I understand more about the saying “if I dry my sweat, I will run out of money”. I decided to work until the end of April 2026, when summer begins, I will look for new job opportunities,” Mr. Nam said.
In recent years, along with the explosion of the digital economy, many jobs on digital platforms have developed strongly in major cities. From delivery, technology ride-hailing, online sales, digital content creation to freelance work through applications... Undeniably, foundation work opens up quick livelihood opportunities for many workers, especially young workers, migrant workers, unemployed workers or those who want to have more income.
However, "freedom" here is mostly just formal freedom. The income of platform workers depends directly on the number of working hours, number of orders and distribution algorithms of the platform. When market demand decreases or competition increases, income immediately decreases. Many workers have to work 10-12 hours a day to reach an income of 9-12 million VND/month, excluding gasoline costs, vehicle depreciation, telephone, internet", Mr. Nguyen Dinh Khanh Nam - Human Resources Director of Thien Minh Group (Dong Da ward, Hanoi) said.
Many risks
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong - former Director of the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs, unlike contract workers, people working on a platform almost do not have a "safe net" of income. When sick, injured, or simply no longer able to find a job, the source of income is immediately interrupted.
The common point of most foundational jobs is that labor relations are not clearly established. Employees are often classified into the group of "partners", "collaborators", "service providers", instead of employees in the legal sense. This helps foundational businesses reduce personnel costs, but pushes risks to the employee side," Ms. Huong said.
Ms. Huong said that in the long term, the fact that millions of workers work outside the formal social security system poses a major challenge to social policy, especially in the context of population aging and the requirement to ensure sustainable social security. Therefore, it is necessary to soon complete the legal framework to clearly define the position of grassroots workers, thereby paving the way for flexible and appropriate insurance mechanisms.
