According to statistics, the number of migrant workers over the age of 50 has exceeded 80 million. Document No. 1 in 2024 clearly states that employment support for older migrant workers will be done. How can this requirement be implemented? In addition, after work, you still have to keep your mobile phone in your hand, and frequently reply to WeChat work group messages, how to eliminate the troubles of "being trapped by the group" and "resting" for workers? Following last year's call for breaking the "35-year-old workplace threshold" at the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress last year, Lu Guoquan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the General Office of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, continued to focus on people in the workplace this year, paid attention to the re-employment of older migrant workers, and called for the protection of workers' right to offline rest.
Pay attention to the re-employment of older migrant workers.
Created a "gig service platform" to provide employment matching services.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, migrant workers over the age of 50 are older migrant workers. According to the "2022 Migrant Worker Monitoring Survey Report", the total number of migrant workers in China is 29.5 billion people, with an average age of 423 years old, of which 29 are migrant workers over 50 years old2%, the number of people has exceeded 80 million, and according to the development trend of the current population structure, it is estimated that the scale of older migrant workers will continue to expand.
Older migrant workers are restricted from continuing to be employed
In his proposal, Lu Guoquan wrote that the current generation of migrant workers has reached an advanced age, and as an important part of the labor market, most of them still need to stay in the city to continue to work. However, with the increase of age and the decline of labor ability, they have gradually become a relatively disadvantaged group in the labor market, and they face many thresholds and problems in continuing employment.
One glaring problem is cultural limitations. The aforementioned report shows that 686% of migrant workers only have primary or junior high school Chinese proficiency, and the vast majority of them are older migrant workers. Due to their low level of education and lack of training opportunities, it is difficult for older migrant workers to adapt to the current digital transformation and upgrading of the industry, and their continued employment is restricted or even discriminated against.
In addition, due to the influence of technology, most of the older migrant workers do part-time work, and the job instability is prominent. According to the survey of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' manufacturing enterprise employee matching, the application of digital AI technology has led to a decrease in the demand for front-line production workers196%, the new generation of migrant workers are mostly concentrated in the service industry, relevant data show that more than 50% of farmers are engaged in the tertiary industry, and the re-employment of older farmers is squeezed in the gig market due to age and technology restrictions.
There is also a grim reality that older migrant workers are facing the problem of declining physical condition and working ability, and lack of security for a long time. Lv Guoquan said that most of the older migrant workers are in high-intensity and low-skilled positions such as the construction industry, and are vulnerable to the threat of work-related injuries and occupational diseases. In order to reduce costs and avoid risks, some employers do not apply for work-related injury insurance and occupational health insurance for them, so that the protection of their rights and interests is often in a vacuum.
It is suggested to build a "chain service" for older migrant workers
How to solve the problem of re-employment of older migrant workers? Lu Guoquan suggested that policy support should be increased. Formulate relevant policies around safeguarding the employment rights and safety guarantees of older migrant workers, and do not "one size fits all" based on age, so that older migrant workers who are physically able to achieve full employment on the premise of ensuring safe production. According to the health situation, working years, experience and technology, etc., the older migrant worker group is accurately classified, and the human resource development and supplement of the migrant worker group is done. Support enterprises to appropriately relax the age limit for some "difficult to employ" positions in the construction industry, especially for skilled jobs, within the scope of conditions.
In terms of public employment service guarantee, Lv Guoquan proposed that relevant departments, employers and trade unions should build a "chain service" for older migrant workers, and connect the "single-point" employment registration, skills training, employment introduction and other services to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of employment services.
For the skilled talents urgently needed in key areas of the current manufacturing industry, modern service industry and rural revitalization, we will provide reemployment training such as safety guarantee and digital skills for older migrant workers who need to "change jobs" or "transfer jobs". Promote the linkage between labor importing and exporting places, and extend the cross-regional training and employment service chain for migrant workers.
It is recommended that some older migrant workers be included in the work-related injury insurance
Focusing on the construction of the gig market for older migrant workers, Lv Guoquan suggested strengthening the construction and management of the gig market, and making good use of big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to collect the employment demand of older migrant workers in the gig market. In industries with a large demand for temporary and seasonal labor, such as housekeeping services and moving and freight, where older migrant workers are concentrated, we have created a "gig service platform" to provide timely employment matching services. In addition, we will accurately promote this platform on the top platform, mobilize enterprises to settle in, and release employment needs such as positions and salaries in real time.
In order to better protect the rights and interests of older migrant workers, Lu Guoquan also suggested that the payment of work-related injury insurance should be "expanded" to include older migrant workers in the scope of protection. At the national level, older migrant workers should be included in the scope of protection of their rights and interests, strengthen the design of top-level systems, revise the relevant provisions of existing laws, issue corresponding implementation rules, or make operational judicial interpretations, and include older migrant workers who have exceeded the legal age of employment in the scope of work-related injury protection. Formulate detailed legal provisions such as tax rates, payment subjects, and penalties for older migrant workers, and make every effort to break through the blockages and difficulties in employers' payment of work-related injury insurance.
Pay attention to the "best overtime" of people in the workplace
It is recommended that the right to take a break offline be incorporated into the law and overtime pay should be determined as appropriate.
Not long ago, a hot search attracted Lu Guoquan's attention. A store designer in Sichuan said that he has accumulated more than 600 work groups for more than two years, and he is "on call 24 hours a day" and "trapped by the group", and he does not dare to turn off his mobile phone, and spends three and a half hours to leave the group ...... after leaving his jobCombined with the previous news of "food delivery riders trapped in the system", Lu Guoquan said that these cases reflect the thirst and helplessness of many workers for the right to rest
Information technology blurs the "boundary" between work and life
In the proposal he submitted, he mentioned that some employers require workers to join the work group, and they can still arrange work through WeChat and other means during off-duty hours, and workers "rest without rest" and "people are in Cao Ying's heart in Han", and the right to rest and privacy are not guaranteed. There are also employers who require employees to work 24 hours a day**, and some workers are criticized, fined or even fired after work for failing to respond to messages in a timely manner, or failing to punch in, hold online meetings, and like**.
A reality that cannot be ignored is that digital information technology is blurring the "boundary" between work and life, and "overtime" is becoming more and more normalized. According to the "Survey Report on the Current Situation of Overtime in the Workplace 2022" released by FutureFree, 847% of workers still pay attention to work-related information after work, 405% of employees do not receive any form of compensation for overtime.
People in the workplace are trapped by the "group", how to break it? Lu Guoquan suggested strengthening the top-level design and introducing the right to offline rest at the legislative level of the labor law – that is, workers have the right to refuse to use digital tools to communicate or handle work matters outside of statutory or agreed working hours.
Although there is no legal provision at the national level to protect the right to offline rest, there has been relevant judicial practice in the face of the controversy of "replying to work WeChat after work is considered overtime". In some cases, the courts have given an affirmative answer: it is clearly recognized as overtime work by using WeChat to perform substantial labor after work.
The reporter from Nandu noticed that a case was disclosed in the court work report recently released by the Beijing High Court, in which the plaintiff Li was a product operator of a technology company in Beijing, and often used WeChat and DingTalk to communicate with customers after work or during holidays, so he claimed that the company should pay overtime pay. After trial, the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court supported Li's claim and ruled that the company should pay 30,000 yuan in overtime pay.
It is recommended that enterprises clarify the compensation standard for online overtime
At this stage, in addition to legislation, how can we protect workers' right to offline rest? Lu Guoquan suggested that the standard working hours should be revised to clearly define online overtime and working hour compensation. At the same time, he proposed a series of measures: increase the research and standardization of labor benchmark systems in the context of the digital economy, such as wages, working hours, rest, and vacation, and incorporate the benchmark guarantee of working hours into the labor security mechanism. Determine the boundaries of online and offline working hours, and make institutional arrangements for working time limits for positions that rely on the Internet with irregular working hours and high work intensity. Expand the current collective bargaining with a focus on wages to a comprehensive collective bargaining mechanism that includes labor standards such as working hours, and comprehensively consider factors such as the frequency and duration of online overtime, wage standards, and work content to determine overtime pay as appropriate. Instruct employers to include clauses in their labor contracts that define and compensate for the right to offline rest, and stipulate compensation standards for online overtime.
At the same time, Lu Guoquan believes that it is necessary to strengthen law enforcement safeguards. For the employer's overtime behavior, the law enforcement department should increase supervision and punishment to increase the cost of violating the law. Improve the rights protection mechanism, so that workers have channels to protect their rights in the face of unreasonable and unpaid overtime. Discipline inspection and supervision departments supervise government affairs applications and government affairs public accounts, prevent the forced use of work groups, excessive traces, abuse of rankings and other "formalism at the fingertips", and ease the burden on grassroots cadres and front-line workers.
Written by: Nandu reporter Li Ling.