Who Has The Final Say In The Remuneration Of Labor? Wenling Textile Industry Wage Consultation Survey

8 years have passed since the time has passed. Today, with the increase of labor costs and the widespread employment difficulty of enterprises, is the collective bargaining of labor and wages continuing in Wenling? Is it still possible to adjust the relationship between labor and capital by means of wage consultation? With these doubts, not long ago, I went to Wenling for a sweater.

In 2003, the wool sweater industry in New River town of Wenling City, Zhejiang province took the lead in "eating crabs". The trade union of the wool sweater industry and the woollen sweater industry association collectively negotiated the wage reward, and the labor and the two sides jointly determined the minimum wage standard (labour price) of all kinds of work in the sweater industry in that year.

Wage consultation, one side is the union representing the interests of the employees, and the other is the industry self-regulation organization representing the owner of the private enterprise. The game sides list the wages on the back and back, and face to face bargaining, and finally determine the minimum wage standards for all kinds of sweaters, and make sure that they are determined in the form of contracts.

This practice of systematization of labor relations has attracted wide attention from all walks of life, including scholars from abroad and in China.

To this end, in 2008, the Zhejiang provincial government held a live exchange conference on collective bargaining in Wenling, and presented the relevant experience of Wenling's experience in the province to the relevant departments of the State Council. Premier Wen Jiabao made important instructions.

Speaking of collective wage negotiations, there is no need to mention a person, that is, Wenling New River town wool sweater trade union chairman Chen Fuqing, he is to promote this wage mode reform experience.

The reporter happened to bump into Lao Chen on his way to Wenling, and he was receiving the Zhejiang Federation of trade unions in Jinhua.

The newcomers came to Wenling to investigate the wage negotiation, and were prepared to take the "real classics" to "read".

Lao Chen has introduced the situation of wage collective bargaining in Wenling over the past few years.

Wenling is located in a mountainous area with less land and more people.

After many years of development, there are more than 100 enterprises in the local sweater industry, and more than 12000 employees have been formed. The sweater industry cluster has been formed in sweater products processing, sweater accessories, marketing, logistics pportation and related industry chain.

With the continuous expansion of the number and scale of enterprises, the labor cost "depression" has been filled, and the competition for employment has become increasingly fierce.

"In 2002, there were 120 petitioners in New River because of wage disputes and disputes with owners. The number of visits was 11, and the petition for five or six people was there every day."

Talking about the past, Lao Chen's voice has been improved a lot. "Because of the wage gap between enterprises, employees are going to work for more money companies."

Employees quit job, the boss buckles employee ID card and wages are not given, so petition every day, disputes are home cooking, and also destroyed the machine, beating boss and other extreme behavior, affecting social stability.

Originally, the enterprise is registered by the boss, the equipment is bought by the boss, the worker is hired by the boss, and the salary is not counted by your boss. Is this possible? Employees come out to work to earn money. What kind of work is paid is different? How to solve the contradiction between the government's headache (keeping the party safe and not accident), the boss worrying (employee jumping to affect the enterprise production order), and the employee's helplessness (his legitimate interests are not guaranteed)? The Wenling municipal government handed the problem to Chen Fuqing, who was in danger.

At that time, Lao Chen still had no "temporary workers" who worked for the government to make profits for the employees.

Lao Chen made up his mind to make sure that this matter concerns the vital interests of 12000 employees in Wenling sweater industry and the maintenance of social stability. Otherwise, I will be laid off for second times.

On the wall of Chen Fuqing's office is a list of woolen sweater industry prices compiled by the wool sweater industry in New River town in 2010.

This price sheet has witnessed the results of collective wage negotiations in Wenling over the past few years and the efforts of Lao Chen.

In order to draw this table, Lao Chen has broken three bicycles in many years, and has run through 113 sweater enterprises in Wenling, which are the most important ones.

"It was hard to see the boss at that time."

Lao said, "bosses do not want to see me, and complain when they see me.

If they can't figure it out, I'll do the work.

If you don't agree with the salary negotiation, if your employees are running away, the production will be affected.

The wages have been straightened out, the staff is at ease, the enterprise can make bigger.

After a lot of in-depth and meticulous communication and persuasion, the bosses finally figured it out. From hiding old Chen to taking the initiative to cooperate with Lao Chen, they told Chen Fuqing about the bottom of every process price of his woollen sweater.

"A woolen sweater has 6 types of work and 72 processes. The wage price of each process should be counted. The weighted average of the same procedure of the more than 100 enterprises is very heavy.

It took me more than 1 months to complete the drawing of the sweater industry scale.

Lao Chen took out the manuscript of the labor price table drawn up that year.

The reporter found that the wages quoted in this price sheet are professional and meticulous, and the amount of each work, process and labor price is clearly marked.

Some of the wages are even accurate to a few cents or cents.

Because of the fine work done, there is little discrepancy between the labor cost and the actual situation of the sweater industry. There is less agreement between the staff and the boss, and the labor and capital sides have reached a uniform standard of work very soon.

With this labor price table, wage consultation can be established according to the circumstances, and it can provide a solid foundation for the smooth negotiation of wages.

Not long ago, Lin Qian Xiang, a master of contemporary Chinese Studies at the national Tsinghua University in Taiwan, made a special trip to Wenling to study the wage negotiations and complete his thesis.

In more than a month, he has collected abundant materials about collective wage consultation, and interviewed business owners and employees.

He told reporters that whether labour relations can be handled properly is a major problem facing many countries in the world.

This labor price table of various types of work in Wenling woolen sweater has found a balance point between supply and demand in the market, which provides a quantitative basis for handling labor relations.

Reporters learned that, today, the signing ceremony of wage consultation in Wenling has been carried out for 8 rounds. Every year, Lao Chen should draw up a new labor price table on the basis of last year's work.

With this labor price table, the minimum standard of wages for piecework employees is intuitively reflected and paved the way for wage negotiations.

This process price table, which embodies Lao Chen's efforts for many years, has set up a scientific and convincing file for the reform of wage consultation in Wenling.

Who has the final say in salary? How to harmonize labor and capital relations, so that these contradictions and unity will become more harmonious? This is not only a difficult problem for China, but also a topic of discussion in the world.

Some foreign experts and scholars have come to Wenling many thousands of times to find a satisfactory answer.

Wage consultation in Wenling is a systematic project to deal with the economic interests of owners and employees in the socialist market economy.

Its experience has Chinese characteristics.

As the market has changed, the initiative of wage pricing has been decided by the original boss, and gradually become the boss and staff discuss.

The reason for this change is, on the one hand, the labor intensive employment system and the flow of labor resources in the textile industry. On the other hand, the dependence of enterprises on employees is gradually improving.

The new mechanism of wage consultation provides an effective way and path to solve this new problem.

Xiao Wang, a Wenling Federation of trade unions, told a local business owner that he had hired a plane to Yunnan to recruit workers. This shows that "recruitment difficulties" have become a major norm for local textile and garment enterprises.

Basically, there is no job hopping in enterprises that implement wage negotiations.

Now, no matter which enterprise to work in the industry, as long as the wage process is almost the same, the possibility of employee job hopping is very small. This is what the boss likes to see, and is also the internal reason why the boss can accept the wage consultation. Plus the external cause of the government's implementation of this work, it is logical for Wenling to advance the wage consultation smoothly.

In 2009, a Ph.D. from Boston University in the United States came to China. He gave a high appraisal of the practice of the wage consultation system in Wenling, China. He believed that China had found the key to "open the old lock".

A German scholar once asked Chen Fuqing: "what do you rely on to persuade employers and workers to negotiate wages?

You know, it is impossible for the boss to raise wages when the workers do not strike. "

Chen Fuqing's answer to this scholar is: "we rely on the leadership of the Communist Party and rely on the support of the government."

Indeed, the Wenling municipal government is fully supportive of this work.

In June 2004 and May 2005, the Wenling municipal government issued the "Implementation Opinions on collective wage consultation of non-public enterprises" and the implementation opinions on vigorously promoting the collective wage consultation system.

In March 2008, a guiding document on further improving and promoting the collective wage consultation was put forward, which was standardized from the aspects of organizational leadership, equal consultation, democratic management, wage early-warning, supervision and inspection and the procedure of collective wage consultation, laying the foundation for establishing a long-term mechanism for improving collective wage negotiations.

If the government supports staff consultations, the government will pay for the work hours and production tasks of each wage negotiation at each meeting.

"To subsidize employees who are involved in consultations," the government is really laying the way for wage negotiations.

Lao Chen said.

It is understood that every round of wage consultations in Wenling is usually placed in August of that year. This is the peak season for the production of labor in the sweater industry. The most important concern of business owners is how to retain employees.

At this time, wage consultation, taking advantage of time and place, is relatively easy to operate.

"It was not so smooth in the past."

Lao Chen told reporters about a small episode in the signing ceremony of the first round of wage consultation in 2003: the labor price standard determined by the consultation between employers and employees. At the end of the signing, a business owner suddenly put forward different opinions on "if the business losses occurred in that year, the wages of employees could not be guaranteed to be paid according to the wages".

The boss's words represent some business owners' concerns.

After careful work, the two sides finally signed the agreement.

"This year is the ninth round of collective wage negotiations. Although the signing ceremony has not yet been carried out, according to Lao Chen's estimate, it should be smooth.

"Wage collective bargaining over the past few years, there is little difference between the two sides in terms of wages, and the deviation between the two sides is not more than 10%."

Lao Chen said.

A survey conducted by the Wenling Federation of trade unions showed that as of May this year, the city had carried out collective wage consultations in 16 industries, including sweaters, shoemaking and hat industry, covering more than 6100 enterprises, benefiting nearly 400 thousand employees.

Dialogue instead of confrontation, through the standardized game of interests between employers and employees, has achieved a "triple win" among the government, enterprises and employees, and has proved to be an important way to build a harmonious labor relationship.

However, reporters also heard different voices in the survey.

Nan Jian village, Wenling, is the industrial cluster of the hat making industry. There are more than 300 caps in the village, and the collective bargaining has been going on for 3 years.

The village Tu Tu hat manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a medium-sized enterprise which produces all kinds of Summer Hats, winter caps, domestic products and foreign trade.

Every year after the Spring Festival to April for the peak season, the enterprise employs roughly 100 people.

In May, although it entered the off-season of cap making industry, 70 workers were still working in order to ensure the quality of export products.

"A few years ago, you had the final say, but now things are different.

We try hard to improve the treatment of our employees in various ways, and often fail to keep people.

Dai Yonghui, general manager of the company complained to reporters, "employees are everywhere asking which companies pay high wages, and some small businesses do not support workers in the off-season."

He counted out an account. The job of the ironing cap is now 150 yuan a day, and the wages of some skilled workers are even higher, which is close to 170~200 yuan / day.

On the wage consultation view, Ye Mindan, the boss, thinks that the loss is still the boss of the enterprise.

She said: "when we recruit workers, we know the price of each process, and the employees are also recognized."

Employees can start job hopping.

The factory went bankrupt, employees could go to other factories, and the boss went bankrupt.

It is understood that in today's labor-intensive industries, "employment is difficult" today, the management of employees in some private enterprises in Wenling is more difficult.

"The workers are not well managed now. The boss wants to see the faces of the employees."

Ye Mindan thinks.

As a reform, wage consultation has ensured the wages of employees, and the employment of enterprises has been guaranteed.

But this system should consider both the interests of employees and the survival of enterprises.

Pan Jiaoyun, a staff member of Tanggula Garments Co., Ltd., worked for many years in the woolen sweater company in Wenling. She felt quite a lot about wage negotiations.

She believes that now employees and employers have been tied together, wage negotiations will certainly benefit employees, "wages can get in full and on time, we work less worry."