en.humanrights.cn: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has had to press the "pause" button on its economy in order to fight the epidemic and protect people's rights to life and health. Work, production, and commercial activities were suspended for a period of time, causing some problems related to the individual rights and interests of employers and employees. Today, we are pleased to invite Ms. Lu Haina, associate professor at the Law School and executive director of the Center for Human Rights Research at Renmin University of China to join us in a discussion about how to protect the right to employment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hello, Professor Lu! Hello! During the epidemic, we have seen some cases. For example, many people have been working at home with increased working hours. Some enterprises could not pay employees their regular salaries. How did China respond to this sudden change in employment?
Lu Haina: First of all, the COVID-19 pandemic is an emergency that had a similar economic impact on all countries, causing difficulties to enterprises and employment.
China has responded quickly in this respect. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security soon issued a notice in January 2020 providing guidelines on employment during the pandemic. Let's take the payment of salary as an example. How should the employees be paid if they are quarantined or placed under medical observation for COVID-19 prevention and control. According to the above mentioned guidelines, the enterprise should pay employees regularly during medical observation or quarantine. The term of labor contracts that expires during this period should be extended accordingly until the end of quarantine. The fact that employees in quarantine or similar situations are unable to work cannot be the reason to terminate labor contracts. It safeguarded employment stability and basic rights to employment.
As for the enterprises, it is true that many of them have been greatly affected by the pandemic. What about the employment relationships of these enterprises that have encountered difficulties in production and operation? According to the guidelines, it is recommended that companies and employees should communicate with each other to reach an agreement on adjusting or decreasing salaries appropriately or reducing employees' working hours. The right to employment of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic can also be safeguarded through various measures including shift work to ensure there would be no or fewer layoffs. The state also provides subsidies to enterprises such as subsidies for stabilizing employment. The basic right to subsistence of the employees and their families can be protected in this way.
You can see that the guidelines are very detailed including many technical details and the promotion of online mediation in order to resolve labor disputes during the epidemic to maintain social stability.
en.humanrights.cn: The labor market has undergone great changes since the coronavirus outbreak. Flexible employees have played an active role in stabilizing employment and promoting the resumption of production. However, these people cannot be categorized into traditional labor relationships. How do you think should the rights of this group of people be protected?
Lu Haina: The protection of the rights and interests of workers in the platform economy is more than a pandemic-related topic, it is also a general issue. However, the outbreak of the pandemic has highlighted the positive role of the platform economy in improving employment.
Therefore, currently, the problems are how we balance the needs of platform economic development and the protection of the rights and interests of workers in the platform economy. The problems have proven to be quite challenging for all countries in the world. So far, there has not been a satisfactory and relatively perfect solution. So, in fact, all countries, including China are on the same starting line in this respect.
As to the protection of workers in the platform economy, first, we must identify the various types of workers. The first type is the worker in the traditional employment relationship which is provided with comprehensive protection. The second type is the worker in the civil sense in our traditional legal relationship, which can be handled from the traditional civil perspective. The most challenging one that all countries around the world are trying to deal with is the third type including delivery people and online car-hailing drivers who only work for one online platform. It's their sole source of income. They are heavily dependent on the platform economically. We are facing the challenge of how to protect this group of workers.
I believe we should take the human rights–based approach to protect workers in the platform economy. The human rights–based approach provides guiding principle and standard of judgment for solving the problem. For example, Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights that China has ratified also aim to protect work-related rights.
So, I have the following suggestions based on my study.
First of all, some innovations in the law are required to break the current dual structure of the Labor Law and develop a basic standard to protect all workers on the platform. It should include the working hour minimum wage standards and health and safety-related stipulations. While the platform must shoulder corresponding responsibilities, the government should also issue relevant standards. Of course, these are still under discussion and preparation.
In addition, social security should also be guaranteed. Platform workers should be covered by work injury insurance, medical insurance and old-age insurance no matter what type of labor relationship they are in.
I would also like to propose a plan to promote collective consultation among union leaders. For example, we can first establish the workers' union of the platform and then the union will conduct a collective consultation with the platform to reach an agreement on wages remuneration, working hours and working conditions. This is a better way to bring the initiative of both the platform and the workers into full play.
The last point I want to emphasize is the principle of equality and non-discrimination. It is also a very basic principle of human rights.
en.humanrights.cn: Well, we've learned from your sharing that it is not easy to protect the rights and interests of workers no matter whether they are part of the conventional labor relationship or the flexible employment group. This is especially true when taking into consideration the great impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's economy and the great pressure on employment. So, why does China have to overcome difficulties to stabilize employment?
Lu Haina: China attaches great importance to the protection of people's right to work. Governments at all levels have put out relevant measures and policies to deal with the impact of the pandemic on the economy and enterprises. I come from Jiangsu. When I returned to my hometown, some local small and micro business owners told me that some small and micro businesses enjoy social security payment exemptions and preferential tax. Some enterprises I know can be exempt from VAT, if their turnover is less than RMB 300,000 in a quarter. This is also a measure taken by the state to guarantee employment because helping enterprises is equivalent to supporting employment.
I also want to talk about the work carried out by some organizations to improve employment.
First of all, let's take a look at the labor unions. For example, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions has an employee service hotline "12351" in Beijing, which has played the role of mediation and coordination during the pandemic, solving problems for the workers. The ratio of successful mediation online is generally about 50%. The percentage in Jiangsu as I learned when doing research there, was about 70%, which was a higher number. The labor union also organizes collective consultations, especially collective consultations within specific industries. Take the delivery industry as an example, they negotiated on extending the rest time of employees working in a high-temperature environment to reduce labor intensity and paying high-temperature subsidies. In addition, the trade union also provides online employment services, skills training and competitions as well as legal assistance for rural migrant workers.
Next, let's talk about the Women's Federation Women are more affected than men by the pandemic across the world. The epidemic has a more negative impact on women than on men because women generally do more of the housework in the family at the same time, they also have to get their job done working online or working from home. Therefore, the Women's Federation has introduced a number of supporting policies and measures to counteract such negative impacts. For example, the Women's Federation and banks have worked together to launch loans to support female entrepreneurs, it also attaches great importance to e-commerce platforms to help female entrepreneurs sell products online during the epidemic while many other sales channels were interrupted. The Zhejiang Women's Federation has launched an e-commerce platform that focuses on promoting female-run enterprises like homestay inns. In terms of employment, the Women's Federation has also organized various online skills training programs specifically designed for female workers, including over 400 online classes on farming and breeding as well as housekeeping skills. It has also organized online female recruitment fairs such as job fairs for female college graduates to help women find jobs. The Women's Federation has also provided support for industries such as co-hosting a housekeeping service skills competition with other organizations to promote the employment of women. We also know that domestic violence has increased, during the pandemic, which is a global phenomenon. The Women's Federation provides anti-domestic violence with support, such as online consultations.
In a word, people from all walks of life have made great efforts to respond to the pandemic. But in general, I believe that having the pandemic under control and taking protective measures are the key to the protection of the rights to employment and work.
en.humanrights.cn: Employment is what matters the most to people's livelihood and is an important guarantee for social stability. General Secretary Xi Jinping has paid close attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment since its outbreak. He has made a series of important instructions on the promotion of pandemic prevention and control and economic and social development and set out clear requirements on comprehensively strengthening measures to stabilize employment.
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have coordinated the pandemic prevention and control and economic and social development, prioritizing employment stabilization and issuing many favorable employment policies to help enterprises overcome difficulties, stabilize and safeguard employment. Employment in China is generally stable. According to statistics published by the National Bureau of Statistics on November 16, 2020, 10.09 million new urban jobs were created across China from January to October, achieving the target of the year ahead of schedule.
Thank you for watching and see you in our next episode.
