This paper aims to study and improve the legal identification of industrial injuries for the over-aged in China. And it will contribute to the protection of the labor rights of the vulnerable class

supporting the active participation of the over-aged in the labor market

easing the social pressure of the aging population and maintaining the harmonious development of society. This paper conducts solid case study and policy analysis regarding The Reply. This paper reveals that with the continuous better development of Chinese society

the life expectancy of our people is longer than ever with the development of medical technology

and the structure of the working population is also showing an aging trend

the proportion of the over-aged in the workforce is increasing. Nowadays the over-aged entering the labor market has become an unavoidable employment phenomenon

but as a result of the backwardness of policies and laws

when the the over-aged are injured at work

compared with the standard employees who can apply for industrial injury insurance

their industrial injury cannot be applied for identification of work-related injuries on account of they have not established labor relations with their employer

therefore numerous employment disputes arose. In this regard

in 2010

the Administrative Trial Chamber of the Supreme People's Court issued The Reply to the Inquiry on whether the Industrial injury Insurance Regulations Should Be Applied to Urban Migrant Workers Who Are Over the Legal Retirement Age and Are Injured or Died at Work(hereinafter refer to as The Reply) according to Question of the Shandong Superior People's Court. However

because The Reply has some problems in practice such as the relationship between the over-aged and the employer is unclear

the dispute of whether The Reply has general constrain

the problem of whether the industrial injury insurance blocking the application of The Reply

the over-aged workers cannot be insured for work-related injuries and so on. Therefore

the judicial officers have different understanding of the same issue in various aspects in practice

which has resulted in the persistence of disparate judgments in the similar cases. The contribution of this paper to the academic community is that

in addition to providing a research paradigm for the protection of the over-aged population from work-related injuries

the universal research methodology can be extended to a wider range of scenarios and cases.