Management of labor relations in consulting enterprises

Since the end of 1990s, unprecedented new changes have taken place in China's labor relations, and the report of the 15th and 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has become the propeller of this change. Many problems have not been considered yet, and the real problems are already in front of us. The reform of property right system will inevitably lead to the change of labor relations between workers and enterprises, and it is urgent to reconstruct and adjust labor relations to adapt to the socialist market economy. Based on this, the author will make a perspective on the changes of labor relations and possible problems under the current situation, in order to seek solutions to the problems and hope to promote the formation of the whole society.

First, the status quo of labor relations in restructured enterprises

The expansion of enterprise's autonomy in employing people mainly began in the mid-1980s, and the labor contract system was implemented among newly recruited workers. Enterprises have acquired the right to adapt themselves to labor relations for newly recruited workers. With the reform of the full-time labor contract system in the early 1990s, the dominant position of the user unit has matured. However, due to various reasons, many loss-making enterprises and low-profit enterprises can't digest all the employees originally hired according to the contract, and there are surplus personnel in the process of restructuring, that is, the so-called laid-off phenomenon has appeared. This phenomenon has become a hot issue of general concern to the whole society. According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, by the end of 2003, there were 2.6 million laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises in China, a decrease of 1.5 million compared with the end of last year. From the legal point of view, laid-off workers refer to the fact that workers and employers do not terminate the labor contract and maintain the labor legal relationship, but there is no labor process and labor content. Enterprises always identify the surplus personnel internally first, and carry out the so-called "double talk" among these personnel, that is, resignation and dismissal. As we all know, the mobility of employees in enterprises has been low for a long time, and "nepotism" has made the interpersonal relationship of many enterprises complicated and subtle. It is difficult to talk in such an environment. At the same time, in order to maintain stability and promote employment, government departments emphasize the internal digestion of surplus personnel by enterprises. For example, the work plan of enterprise restructuring in Huai 'an City, Jiangsu Province stipulates: "After the enterprise restructuring, the employee contract of the original enterprise shall not be less than 85%." In fact, if the enterprise can really digest more than 85% of the employees in the original enterprise, there will not be so many laid-off workers in society. Therefore, enterprises should, according to actual needs, reduce staff and reduce burdens and go into battle lightly. However, the interpersonal relationship within the enterprise has become a resistance, and the government requires the enterprise to place a certain proportion of employees in the original enterprise, which makes the enterprise in a dilemma in the process of restructuring.

In addition, according to the existing laws and regulations, if an employee proposes to terminate the labor relationship, he will resign, and there is basically no social security. If an enterprise proposes to terminate labor relations, it will involve social security issues such as pension insurance, medical insurance and unemployment benefits, which will put pressure on society. In view of this situation, it has been stipulated in the work plan of enterprise restructuring in Huai 'an City, Jiangsu Province that employees who are temporarily unable to take up their posts should stay in the enterprise and not be promoted to the society. It can be seen that internal waiting for posts has become a relatively thoughtful transitional measure for enterprises to deal with labor relations in the process of restructuring, but in fact this measure does not conform to the provisions of China's labor law. The constituent elements of the labor legal relationship stipulated in the Labor Law are complete and true, and there is no so-called "laid-off" stipulation that there is a labor legal relationship but no labor content. From this, we find that the labor relationship between employees and enterprises has made a breakthrough in the process of enterprise restructuring, that is, it has broken through the typical labor legal relationship. Its biggest feature is that employees don't go to work, don't get paid, and don't enter the social security system when they are unemployed. Employees are separated from enterprises, and their labor legal relationship is in a vague and uncertain state. If the enterprise benefits turn better, it can return to its post soon, and if the enterprise benefits turn worse, it may stay in its post forever. This seemingly suspended labor contract relationship will gradually evolve into the fact that this relationship is terminated or the employee resigns after the express termination with the change of time. The social security work that should be supervised by government departments and carried out for employees has been slowly digested by enterprises. It can't be said that this is caused by the defects of the labor legal system, and the whole society and the legislative department should solve it as soon as possible.

Two. On the Changes of Labor Relations in Restructured Enterprises

In today's increasingly perfect market economy system, fierce competition will inevitably lead to the survival of the fittest, and the improvement of enterprise operating conditions will directly affect the resource allocation of enterprise labor. Market economy requires enterprises to employ people independently, enhance the vitality of enterprises and improve economic benefits. Therefore, if enterprises really need to streamline personnel, it is also in line with the laws of market economy. The focus of labor system reform is to reform the employment system and implement the labor contract system. For a long time, China has been implementing the employment system of unified contracting and distribution of urban labor force by the state to eliminate unemployment artificially. Not only the initial employment of the labor force, but also the mobility of the labor force after employment should be included in the plan, and there is not much room for two-way choice. What often happens is that it is not the occupation that adapts to the preferences and specialties of workers, but the preferences and specialties of workers are transformed by occupations. Changing careers usually costs a lot. According to the plan, it is to adjust the labor relationship between workers and enterprises by administrative means and maintain a fixed identity for life. Enterprises can't absorb or dismiss workers according to the changes in production and operation, and it is difficult for workers to change even if they are engaged in non-professional work. Therefore, this employment system can not flexibly adapt to the changes of enterprise labor demand in different periods and under different conditions. Enterprises lack autonomy in choosing jobs, it is difficult for those who need it to enter, those who don't need it to leave, and those who are redundant to be hired. For workers, it is also easy to waste talents, and the principle of "people make the best use of their talents" cannot be realized. Therefore, the labor system must be reformed with the reform of the economic system. The labor contract system is a more reasonable choice. It determines the labor rights, obligations and responsibilities of both parties by signing a labor contract with the employer. At the same time, the labor contract has become a legal fact that produces labor legal relations.

With the implementation of the spirit of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, enterprises should further dilute and remove the administrative subordination relationship with the government, and return the autonomy of enterprises in the microeconomic field to enterprises, including of course the right of enterprises to choose positions. The government only conducts macro management on enterprises. Enterprise reform focuses on the property right system, transforming the original state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises into private ownership, joint-stock system and joint-stock cooperative system. In recent years, the transaction volume of enterprise property rights transfer has increased rapidly all over the country, and the news of enterprise mergers and acquisitions has frequently spread, and the momentum of private enterprises merging state-owned enterprises is also growing. Some enterprises have turned into joint-stock cooperative system, and internal employees have become the main buyers of enterprises. From this point of view, property right transaction has become a kind of enterprise behavior, and it will certainly become the direction of future development. The momentum of this reform will also change the original labor relationship between workers and enterprises, which needs to be reconstructed, so as to determine a new labor relationship based on the original labor contract relationship. But the establishment of this new type of labor relations needs a process. At present, between private entrepreneurs and workers, although most of the employees of the original enterprise were retained and placed in a certain period of time at the beginning of the restructuring, this is only an expedient measure for the government to maintain stability at the beginning of the restructuring, and it still belongs to administrative intervention in essence. Therefore, in the past, the labor contract relationship with management and managed factors actually faced the possibility of being dissolved at any time, which also became the reason for the increase of labor dispute cases year by year. Although the concept of dismissal is not clearly defined in China's labor law, it allows enterprises to unilaterally terminate contracts under certain conditions, and employees' working ability in enterprises is mainly judged by enterprises, so labor relations are still unstable.

Moreover, even if private enterprises do not terminate the labor relationship with employees, their labor contract relationship has changed from the original relationship with administrative factors to a simple labor contract relationship. It is impossible for business owners to maintain labor relations with workers without labor content under normal circumstances. The shares recognized by employees of joint-stock cooperative enterprises are often only the conditions for obtaining the qualification to sign labor contracts. Generally, their shares cannot form a competitive advantage in the market. Compared with their status as workers, the latter is more important. In the actual labor process, employees pay attention to their own wages and seldom pay attention to sharing dividends. In this low-wage and high-employment environment, employees are lucky to have jobs.

The general plan of governing the country according to law makes labor relations must also be adjusted by law. Enterprise restructuring has brought bright prospects to enterprises, but at present, the legal protection for workers is relatively weak. We don't want the development of enterprises to be at the expense of the interests and rights of workers. Therefore, we hope that under the premise of ensuring the development of enterprises, the law can show more concern for workers and effectively protect their legitimate rights and interests.

Third, the understanding of the nature of labor relations in restructured enterprises.

Labor contract is a legal fact that produces labor legal relationship. It is an agreement between workers and employers to establish labor relations and clarify the rights, obligations and responsibilities of both parties. Labor relations are different from ordinary civil relations, which are characterized by equal status, equal rights and obligations, and no subordinate relationship. Although the establishment of labor relations is achieved on the basis of equal consultation between both parties, and some problems are solved in the form of equal consultation in the performance, alteration and dissolution of labor relations, once the labor relations are established, both parties have the relationship between management and being managed. Therefore, labor relations are a social relationship formed by the combination of equal relations and management relations based on orders and obedience. Enterprise reform has changed a lot of labor relations. The labor contract relationship between workers and enterprises, which was originally administrative, has become a simple labor contract. It turns out that enterprise employees, as the owners of enterprises, have the ownership of means of production, the distribution of social products and the democratic management of enterprises, and they are also lost with the transfer of enterprise property rights in the process of enterprise restructuring. Nevertheless, it is worth studying whether employees should sign contracts, whether they are labor contracts or labor contracts.

The author believes that there are some differences between labor contracts and labor contracts. Once the labor contract is signed, the two parties form a relationship between management and management, and the labor contract has equal status, which does not exist; Labor remuneration in labor contracts is generally distributed according to work, which is relatively stable, while labor remuneration in labor contracts is often paid according to the principle of equivalent compensation; In the labor contract, the employer bears the risk responsibility, while in the labor contract relationship, the labor service provider bears the risk by itself; Labor contracts pay attention to the labor process, and labor contracts pay attention to the labor results, although there are also labor processes. The significance of distinguishing these two concepts lies in that there are many employees waiting for posts at present, especially redundant employees who were laid off during the restructuring of many enterprises. These employees maintain a contractual relationship with the original unit, but they cannot participate in enterprise labor. Therefore, many laid-off workers have signed contracts with another unit while maintaining labor relations with their original units. The new unit should pay social security fees such as medical insurance and endowment insurance for workers in accordance with the relevant provisions of the labor law, but the new unit often regards these workers as workers and refuses to pay them. They believe that employees have their original units and should perform their obligations. The new unit only signed a labor contract with the employee and has no obligation to pay social security fees. At the same time, the new unit understands labor relations as labor relations, which makes it easy for workers to get different pay for equal work in the new unit.

Some people think that the relationship between private enterprises and employees after restructuring should be employment relationship, not labor relationship. As we all know, at the same time of enterprise restructuring, the traditional employment relationship has also changed, and there is obvious personality inequality between them, which adds identity to the employment contract, that is, the relationship between employees and employers breaks through the equality of both parties in the traditional employment contract and has the relationship between management and being managed. This employment relationship can become a typical labor contract relationship with a little adjustment.