Is it feasible for migrant workers to pay monthly wages?

At this year's National People's Congress, the issue of migrant workers' wages once again sparked heated discussions.

According to the Beijing News, Tan Shuangjian, a representative of the National People's Congress who has been engaged in the construction industry for 27 years, suggested that migrant workers in the construction industry should pay wages on a monthly basis like office workers, and set up relevant government departments to systematically manage and supervise the payment of wages in enterprises, so that migrant workers can gradually realize the monthly salary system.

A stone stirred up a thousand waves, and netizens spoke on this topic one after another.

"What we are most worried about is unpaid wages. It is good to pay monthly, but we must solve the problem of wage arrears first. "

"China has completed so many complicated projects. Is it difficult to pay wages to migrant workers? "

"Our enterprises here do send money every month, but only the living expenses can be paid, 1 1,000 yuan. They said that the rest will be settled at the end of the year. "

In fact, the "monthly salary system" for migrant workers is also an old topic. As early as 2004, CPPCC member Ou Chengzhong suggested that the wages of migrant workers should be paid monthly and settled at the end of the year. Later, several CPPCC members proposed a "monthly payment" system for the wages of migrant workers.

A proposal that spans 19 years can still arouse heated public opinion, which shows that the society is deeply concerned about the protection of migrant workers' rights and interests, but it also shows the difficulty of safeguarding rights.

What's the difficulty? First, the labor contract is still incomplete, and wage arrears occur from time to time. At present, despite repeated requests from the central authorities, all localities are actively promoting it. A considerable number of migrant workers have signed labor contracts with enterprises, but the terms stipulated in these contracts have not been well implemented. Some enterprises still evade contracts and exploit legal loopholes.

This also makes many migrant workers in a state of de facto lack of security. The lack of overall rights and interests will be transmitted to all aspects of migrant workers' labor rights and interests.

Then there is the special capital turnover mode of migrant workers in the construction industry, which is not conducive to migrant workers to adopt a "monthly salary system." Generally speaking, the construction industry mostly adopts the project system, and subcontracting is very common, while migrant workers are at the end of the whole chain, which makes it difficult for migrant workers to claim their rights and interests and lack chips in the game. The wages of migrant workers are often included in the whole fund, and there is no specific distinction.

Moreover, as far as individual migrant workers are concerned, many people's willingness to advocate "monthly salary system" seems to be not strong, which is related to their long-term salary habit and wandering state in the city. Their consumption in the city is only to meet the basic needs of life and even survival, and the money they earn still needs to be taken home.

Of course, in recent years, with the popularity of mobile storage and payment, migrant workers do not have the problem of keeping money, and the "monthly salary system" has gradually been accepted.

For many years, relevant parties have been pushing forward the issue of wage payment for migrant workers. On May 1 2020, the Regulations on the Protection of Migrant Workers' Wages came into effect, which was the first time that the issue of migrant workers' wages was written into law. It clearly requires that the construction unit and the general contractor shall conclude a written project construction contract according to law, and shall stipulate the project payment measurement period, the project payment schedule settlement method and the labor cost allocation period, and stipulate the labor cost according to the requirements of ensuring the timely and full payment of migrant workers' wages. The service fee allocation period shall not exceed 1 month.

However, in reality, the implementation of the monthly salary system is not optimistic. Just as some migrant workers said, they signed many contracts and paid monthly wages, but they played a new trick, that is, they only paid part of their living expenses and the rest were settled at the end of the year. As for opening a special account for migrant workers' wages, the real-name management system was adopted, and the implementation was also discounted.

In the final analysis, if we really want to implement the "monthly salary system" for migrant workers, we still need to strengthen supervision and punishment, and truly implement the provisions of various laws and regulations from "paper rights" to "realistic beauty." A healthy society should not have such poor rights, but should take the initiative to attack, and the method is always more difficult than it is.

Since the national labor inspection department has to solve a large number of unpaid wages every year, it may wish to try to move the barrier forward step by step, start with investigating whether all enterprises, especially construction enterprises, abide by laws and regulations, and constantly consolidate the institutional foundation for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers, thus gradually forming the benign development of all positive systems such as the "monthly salary system" among migrant workers.