Fury in China as deliveryman kneels before guard
XChinese authorities have called for gig workers to be treated with kindness after videos of a delivery rider kneeling before a security guard led to protests by dozens of riders.
Guards stopped the rider from leaving a building in Hangzhou on Monday - saying he damaged railings while scaling them during a rushed delivery.
Worried that his subsequent deliveries would be delayed, the rider got on his knees and pleaded to be let go, the city's police said in a statement.
The incident sparked outrage online, with many urging better protections for workers in the industry.
Some 12 million people work as delivery riders in China, and the pandemic has fuelled explosive growth in the sector.
But the industry - much like in the rest of the world - is notorious for its tight deadlines, where low-wage riders are subject to tough penalties over delays and poor customer .
Many also work long days, earning less than a dollar for each delivery.
The incident on Monday drew huge crowds of angry delivery riders to the building in downtown Hangzhou, leading the police to dispatch dozen of officers to manage the situation - including from the special weapons and tactics team.
Videos shared on social media show the riders chanting, "Apologise! Apologise!"
At one point, they start belting out China's national anthem.
Hangzhou police issued a statement on Tuesday urging the public to "stay calm and seek to understand one another".
Meituan, the delivery platform that the rider in question was working for, said it will "take thorough responsibility" to look into whether he was treated unfairly, and ensure its delivery riders are properly protected.
The platform added that it has paid to repair the broken railings.
Hashtags related to the incident have clocked up hundreds of millions of views on microblogging platform Weibo in the last few days.
Some s condemned the security guards' "bullying tactics", while others acknowledged that the rider had made a mistake.
"They are both low-wage workers. Why did it have to come to this":[]}