How can enterprise reform safeguard the interests of employees?

With the continuous deepening of the reform of my country's socialist market economic system, it is imperative to restructure state-owned (collectively) enterprises and establish a modern enterprise system, and it has gradually become a prairie fire. A large number of enterprises bid farewell to the past. The single ownership form was changed to new mixed ownership or private private enterprises, and the restructuring rate of some urban enterprises even reached more than 90%. Under this situation, with the continuous deepening of the reform of my country's socialist market economic system in the process of enterprise restructuring, it is imperative to restructure and transform state-owned (collective) enterprises and establish a modern enterprise system, and it has gradually become a prairie fire. A large number of Enterprises bid farewell to the single ownership form in the past and changed to new mixed ownership or private private enterprises. In some cities, the restructuring rate of enterprises has even reached more than 90%. Under this situation, it is of particular significance to explore how to effectively safeguard the housing provident fund rights and interests of employees during the process of enterprise restructuring and promote the normal establishment and healthy development of the provident fund system of restructured enterprises. 1. Different treatments for employees’ housing provident fund rights and interests during the process of enterprise restructuring Enterprise restructuring, no matter what form and business model it adopts, will involve the reduction of the number of employees and the change of employee status. Due to the differences in the nature of the original ownership of the enterprise, the awareness of employees' rights protection, and the legal awareness of enterprise managers (owners) after restructuring and the enterprise's operating mechanism, it is reflected in the handling of the issue of employees' housing provident fund rights and interests and whether to continue to contribute to employees during the restructuring process. Regarding provident fund issues, different companies have different understandings and approaches. 1. Enterprises after restructuring can establish a provident fund system normally and pay provident funds for employees on time. Most of these enterprises are large and medium-sized joint-stock enterprises in which state-owned shares dominate. Generally speaking, these enterprises are in good operating conditions. Before the restructuring, the business management system was sound, employees had a strong sense of democracy and rights protection, and after the restructuring, the corporate governance structure was perfect. The business managers were mainly from the enterprises before the restructuring. Not only that, these enterprises are all suffering from the social management and physical distribution of housing under the traditional management system and ownership structure. They can fully realize that establishing a housing provident fund system and transforming the corporate housing allocation mechanism are the only way for enterprises to move towards glory. Therefore, whether it is Before and after the restructuring, business managers took a positive attitude towards providing employees with provident funds. 2. The housing provident fund system was not established before and after the enterprise was restructured. There are three reasons why restructured enterprises have not established a provident fund system so far. First, the enterprise has not got out of the predicament after restructuring and is still in an extremely difficult state. How to overcome the operating difficulties is the primary issue that business owners consider. The establishment of a housing provident fund system has not yet been established. Mention the agenda. This type of enterprise is mainly small and medium-sized enterprises; secondly, the enterprise is in good operating condition, but because the enterprise management lacks a correct understanding of the significance of establishing a provident fund system, they always believe that the enterprise has good economic benefits and can afford to build, distribute and manage its own employees. There is pressure on housing and there is no enthusiasm for establishing a provident fund system. For example, in some enterprises in county-level cities and towns, as physical distribution of housing continues and sporadic residential development is still popular, the establishment of a provident fund system is still at a weak link; third, some joint-stock enterprises and enterprises with relatively concentrated employee stockholdings , due to the failure to straighten out the relationship between distribution according to work and dividends based on shares, and excessive talk about the superiority of dividends based on shares, corporate managers have tried every means to reduce the company's non-productive costs (including provident fund) expenditures to ensure corporate profits and Employee dividends. At present, our country still lacks objective and fair auditing and effective supervision of corporate financial status and accounting reports, which also encourages some companies to distort their cost reflections to a certain extent. 3. Before the restructuring, the enterprise could make normal provident fund payments for its employees, but after the restructuring, the enterprise's provident fund payments were suspended. This phenomenon mostly occurs in some enterprises that are privately owned after restructuring. Enterprises generally have the final say of the owner. Whether an enterprise can establish a provident fund system mainly depends on the owner's personal qualities and legal awareness. If the business owner lacks the concept of modern market management and has weak legal awareness, plus the number of employees in the company is small, and the workers' congress or trade union organization exists in name only, then the employees' awareness of rights protection will also be greatly suppressed. In this case, relying solely on Propaganda on provident fund policies will not work. On the contrary, if the overall quality of the business owner is high, it may not be too difficult to solve the problem of establishing a provident fund system and paying provident funds for employees. 4. After restructuring, the enterprise established a provident fund system, but the deposits were abnormal or even suspended.

Although the managers of such enterprises understand the significance and role of establishing a provident fund system and hope to make normal deposits of provident funds and protect the interests of employees, due to the financial difficulties of the enterprise and difficulty in capital turnover, they have to sacrifice the normal deposits of provident funds. . As everyone knows, long-term arrears also put a heavy burden on enterprises in providing provident fund payments, making it even more difficult to make up payments. What's more, the provident funds deducted from employees' personal wages are also misappropriated by enterprises for other purposes. 5. Enterprises that have established a provident fund system before restructuring lack effective protection of employees’ provident fund rights and interests during restructuring. When an enterprise is restructured, employees of the original enterprise face three choices: one is to obtain a one-time financial compensation, buy out the length of service in the enterprise, and break away from all relations with the enterprise; the other is to leave the job and retire before the formal retirement process (internal retirement), and the employees will be restructured. The restructured enterprise will pay them a certain monthly living allowance; third, they will be rehired by the restructured enterprise and receive labor remuneration. If the company does not owe provident fund payments to employees before the buyout, everyone will be happy. But this is not the case for most companies, and the arrears of provident funds cannot be compensated in full. It is still uncertain whether employees who retire from work (internal retirement) can be compensated for the provident fund owed by the company before retirement, let alone whether the restructured enterprise will continue to pay provident fund for themselves during the retirement period. At present, both the employer and the employer still hold different opinions on the issue of whether retired employees should continue to contribute to provident funds. Employees who can be re-employed by the restructured enterprises are undoubtedly lucky. Even if they cannot get all the provident funds owed by the original enterprise, they still get a platform and opportunity to safeguard their normal rights and interests. Maybe one day, they will be able to do so. The problem was finally solved due to the improvement of the business operating conditions and the improvement of the business owner's awareness, and the provident fund deposits returned to normal. 6. When an enterprise goes bankrupt, it is difficult to compensate employees for providing provident fund arrears. Corporate bankruptcy is a powerful measure to deepen corporate reform. After bankruptcy, the resettlement of enterprise employees has always been a difficult issue, which has also troubled relevant government departments. There are still some misunderstandings on issues such as whether to repay the outstanding employee provident fund, how to repay it, who should repay it, and how to supervise the repayment. Some believe that the provident fund withheld from the personal wages of employees before the company went bankrupt has not been paid in place, and the company does not owe employees provident funds; others believe that when the company goes bankrupt, since resettlement fees are paid to employees, the provident fund will no longer be considered; Some people even think that my employees’ provident fund contributions do not need to be repaid first. In addition, when dealing with issues related to the resettlement of employees of bankrupt enterprises, some government departments and enterprise bankruptcy liquidation teams do not work carefully, are afraid of trouble, and try to save trouble, which often leads to the failure of some security funds that should be used to compensate employees. Objectively speaking, the establishment of a housing provident fund system is still in its early stages among enterprises and even restructured enterprises in most cities in my country. The main manifestations are: the coverage and deposit rate of enterprise provident funds are still very low. The maintenance and growth of urban provident fund collections mainly come from party and government agencies and public institutions; there are also a considerable number of enterprises that have not established a provident fund system and have not gone through the account opening procedures. , many enterprises that have established a provident fund system have serious arrears and suspensions of payment due to various reasons, and are even in a "sleep" state; the deposit base and contribution ratio of the enterprise's employees' provident fund are still very low, and the ability of employees to use the provident fund to solve housing problems has been affected. Restrictions; the enterprise housing provident fund deferral payment approval system has not been established and improved; there is a lack of an upward or downward adjustment mechanism for the enterprise's provident fund payment ratio; issues such as the discussion and decision-making and supervision rights of the employee representative conference on the exercise of provident fund payment have not been institutionalized and legalized , the situation of enterprise provident fund payment has not yet formed a work linkage to promote the establishment of the enterprise provident fund system; the publicity of provident fund policies and administrative law enforcement often encounter "black obstacles" in enterprises. Therefore, when we lament that the establishment of a housing provident fund system and the protection of employees' rights and interests in restructured enterprises are At the same time, we should look at everything that happened rationally. It should be acknowledged that the various problems that arise in the establishment of a provident fund system in restructured enterprises are not only caused by the limitations of the business managers (owners) themselves and the constraints of the company's operating conditions, but are also related to the poor publicity and guidance of government departments at all levels and the provident fund management center, Measures are not in place. The establishment of a provident fund system for enterprises, especially restructured enterprises, will be the focus and difficulty of the provident fund management center's summer work for a long time in the future. Only by emancipating the mind, being brave in innovation, and working hard can we make breakthroughs and hopefully create restructured enterprises. Establish a new situation in the provident fund system.

[page] 2. Classified guidance, safeguarding the provident fund rights and interests of employees in restructured enterprises. In line with the principles of respecting history, facing reality, and taking into account fairness, it is necessary for the government and the provident fund management center to properly handle the issue of safeguarding the provident fund rights and interests of employees in the process of enterprise restructuring. The specific embodiment of responsibilities is also a prerequisite for promoting the normal establishment of provident fund systems for enterprises after restructuring. At different stages of the enterprise restructuring process, the rights and interests of employees' provident funds have different forms of expression, and the measures and methods adopted to safeguard the rights and interests of employees' provident funds are also different. 1. Issues regarding the handling of personal provident fund accounts for employees who were separated from the original enterprise after restructuring and whose provident fund contributions were interrupted. Before the restructuring of the enterprise, all employees who voluntarily resigned, had a one-time buyout of their length of service, and part of them left their jobs and retired (retired internally) will have their provident fund payment relationships discontinued after the restructuring. In order to properly protect the provident funds that these employees have already paid, we also In order to enable the restructured enterprise to continue to make normal provident fund deposits for its employees, the restructured enterprise should handle the sealing procedures for the individual provident fund accounts of the above-mentioned employees in a timely manner, and the provident fund management center should also actively cooperate without delay. 2. The issue of compensation for provident fund arrears paid by the original company for employees with long-term service who are bought out at one time. For any enterprise that has established a provident fund system before restructuring, and its employees adopt a one-time buyout of their seniority for resettlement, whether the enterprise owes employees provident fund payment shall be calculated from the month when the original enterprise established the provident fund system and paid the provident fund for the first time, regardless of whether the employees have paid the provident fund for the first time. Personal contributions are deducted from personal wages. The amount of compensation in arrears is calculated by multiplying the amount that the unit should deposit for employees on a monthly basis multiplied by the month in arrears. The specific compensation should be deducted from the buyout costs given to employees by the purchaser of the enterprise (the merging party); it can also be deducted from the net assets of the restructured enterprise and handed over to the restructured enterprise for operation, and the restructured enterprise will be responsible for repayment. Enterprises with zero net assets and insolvent debts can make up for the local retention of income tax and value-added tax (business tax) realized by the restructured enterprise, which will be levied by the tax department and provided with financial subsidies. 3. Compensation issues for employees who retire from their jobs (internal retirement) and the original enterprise’s unpaid provident fund. Such problems can be dealt with by referring to the provident fund compensation method for one-time buyout of senior employees. 4. Handling the issue of whether retired employees should continue to contribute to provident funds after the enterprise is restructured. Retired employees have a special economic relationship with the restructured enterprise, and their living expenses are paid monthly by the restructured enterprise, which is basically similar to the monthly labor remuneration received by on-the-job employees of the restructured enterprise. The internally retired employees are the employees of the enterprise after the restructuring, and the enterprise should make normal provident fund payments for them. For early-retired employees, the monthly living allowance provided by the company can be used as the base, and part of it will be deducted from the personal living expenses on a monthly basis, and the company will also provide a partial subsidy for early-retired employees. Taking into account the actual life burden of early-retired employees, upon individual application and approval by the enterprise's employees' congress, early-retired employees can also stop paying provident fund after the restructuring. 5. Issues regarding the deposit of provident funds for employees who are rehired after restructuring. For employees who are rehired, the enterprise should determine the base based on their post-employment salary standards and contribute provident funds to the employees on a monthly basis. Whether post-restructuring enterprises can make regular monthly provident fund payments for their employees is the focus of the Provident Fund Management Center. Judging from the actual situation, the issue of establishing a housing provident fund system for enterprises after restructuring cannot be ignored, nor can it be done too hastily, and cannot be expected to be done in one step. For the provident fund management center, the significance of establishing the enterprise housing provident fund system is greater than the significance of its deposits. As long as all enterprises can agree on and establish the provident fund system, even if the employee contribution base is not high and the contribution ratio is small, they should not be blamed. When restructured enterprises establish a provident fund system, they can implement the method of "getting on track" first (handling deposit registration, account opening and other procedures), and then "getting started" (starting to make deposits and gradually increasing the ratio). When making specific contributions to the provident fund, the provident fund payment ratio can also be adjusted (up or down) in a timely manner according to the operating conditions of the enterprise and the capital situation, and the provident fund management center should provide support. 6. Compensation issues for the unpaid portion of employee provident funds of bankrupt enterprises. For the employees' provident fund arrears before the enterprise went bankrupt, the enterprise bankruptcy liquidation team should be responsible for handling and compensating the employees regardless of whether the employees deducted part of it from their personal wages. The housing provident fund is part of the employee's salary, and the employee provident fund owed when the company goes bankrupt should be given priority for compensation. Compensation funds should be deducted from the net assets of the enterprise. Enterprises with zero net assets and insolvent enterprises can be appropriately compensated by the local finance and paid in installments. 7. For laid-off employees whose provident fund contributions have been interrupted, if the individual is willing, the method of individual contribution to the provident fund can be implemented.

In view of the current situation where a large number of employees have separated from the labor and wage relations with the original enterprises and the provident fund contributions have been interrupted, in order to protect the rights and interests of these employees and enable them to continue to be eligible to enjoy the benefits of the provident fund policy, a method for individuals to contribute to the provident fund can be introduced. During the specific operation, a qualification review should be conducted first, and the individual should select and determine the payment base and payment method within a certain range. Then, the personal provident fund deposits will be specially treated and centralized custody will be implemented, and they will not be confused with the original personal provident fund account. After an individual has made monthly contributions for one year, he or she can make continuous provident fund contributions as normal and enjoy the same provident fund rights as other employees, including the qualifications for provident fund loans. If an individual has made continuous deposits for more than two years and has not applied for a provident fund loan, he or she can also withdraw the personal provident fund under the centralized custody account upon personal application. 3. Guiding public opinion to further strengthen business owners’ understanding of the provident fund system. Increasing publicity, conducting public opinion guidance, and cultivating and strengthening the awareness of rights protection and legal awareness in enterprises are important prerequisites for whether restructured enterprises can normally establish the provident fund system. At present, the provident fund management center should adopt a variety of means, combining all aspects, to actively publicize the State Council's "Housing Provident Fund Management Regulations" and related provident fund policies among restructured enterprises to strengthen the publicity effect. Propaganda to enterprise employees should focus on relying on mass media. At the same time, it can take the form of on-site consultation on the streets, distributing leaflets, posting promotional slogans, making fixed billboards, etc. It can also establish a corporate provident fund co-funder system and train co-funders. , give full play to the promotional role of the co-organizer in the enterprise. Through the above forms of publicity, we introduce the private, wage, policy and mandatory characteristics of provident funds to employees, so that employees can understand the benefits of establishing provident funds to themselves, and further enhance the awareness of rights protection among employees. Propaganda to business owners should focus on door-to-door publicity and convening influential and powerful large-scale special meetings to make business owners realize the significance and role of establishing a provident fund system in transforming the business operating mechanism and establishing a modern enterprise system, as well as the benefits it brings to the business. Benefits brought by it, and understand the legal consequences if a provident fund system is not established. It is worth noting that currently, in the minds of some business owners, there are two major misunderstandings about whether to establish a housing provident fund system and contribute to provident funds for employees, and these must be clarified. One is that the provident fund is a welfare for employees, and it can be paid more, less, or even not paid, and it is entirely up to the company itself; the other is that the enterprise has poor economic performance or even losses, so the provident fund does not need to be paid. In fact, the "Regulations" have clearly stipulated that the provident fund paid by an enterprise for its employees can be included in the enterprise's costs when it is included in the enterprise's costs. The cost item that is paid to individual employees can only be employee wages. Therefore, the provident fund is a part of employee wages, which makes sense. Corporate welfare is paid out of the company's after-tax profits, and naturally changes with changes in corporate profits. It is determined by the amount of profit, which can be more, less, or dispensable. The provident fund paid for employees not only constitutes a part of the enterprise's costs, but is also essentially different from other cost items of the enterprise. It is not subject to other cost items of the enterprise, nor does it change with changes in other cost items, such as enterprise management fees, raw material fees, etc. . Therefore, the practice of arbitrarily reducing the employee provident fund payment base regardless of the actual wage level of enterprise employees is wrong in theory and harmful in practice. It infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of employees and weakens the ability of employees to solve housing problems. In addition, if an enterprise's economic performance is not good and a loss occurs, it can only be said that the enterprise makes little or no profit, while wage costs still occur or do not decrease at all. When an enterprise suffers a loss, it usually takes measures to make up for it, mainly by reducing costs and increasing profits. As long as the company's losses are not caused by excessive wage costs, the company should find a way out by saving raw materials, reducing the occupation of credit funds, and strengthening management. Only in this way can the true level of corporate management be shown, and the practice of paying provident funds for employees should be stopped rashly. is unwise. Some companies in Shanghai would rather increase their losses than pay provident funds for their employees. This is reasonable and worth promoting. [page] 4. Strengthen measures to create a good environment for the restructured enterprises to establish and improve the provident fund system. Strengthening policy publicity is an important prerequisite for promoting the restructured enterprises to establish the provident fund system, and it is necessary to make the provident fund system develop healthily in the restructured enterprises and ensure that the enterprises are on time and in full. In order to contribute to the provident fund for employees, the relevant parties must also take measures to create a good institutional environment for the enterprise, and use the system to constrain and guide the establishment of the enterprise's housing provident fund system so that it can operate in a standardized manner and not be out of shape. 1. Establish and improve the approval system for corporate provident fund deferral payment.

The housing provident fund management committees of cities with districts or above must, in conjunction with the housing provident fund management center, clearly stipulate the conditions, deadlines and approval procedures for enterprises to defer payment of provident funds, and strictly implement them. In restructured enterprises, the power to decide whether to defer the payment of employee provident funds does not lie with the business owner, but with the workers' congress; in the management, the power to decide whether to agree to the company's deferral of provident fund payments does not lie with the management center, but with the management committee. 2. Establish and improve the enterprise employee representative conference system. Trade union departments at all levels should strengthen the supervision and inspection of the implementation of the workers' congress system in restructured enterprises, support and assist the workers' congresses in enterprises to formulate and improve systems for discussing and deciding whether enterprises should defer payment of provident funds, adjust bases and proportions, etc., and promote employee congresses. The congress effectively exercises its right to know and supervise the company's contribution to employee provident funds. 3. Further optimize the business operating environment and reduce the burden on enterprises. Rectifying the economic order, optimizing the economic environment and enterprise operating environment, and further reducing the burden on enterprises are reliable guarantees for improving enterprise operating conditions and financial conditions and increasing enterprise economic benefits. Under normal conditions of production, development and operation of enterprises, the establishment and improvement of the provident fund system will have a solid material foundation and realistic conditions. 4. Cooperate with relevant departments to establish a provident fund census (annual inspection) system and strictly implement it. The provident fund management center can cooperate with the industrial and commercial administration department, labor department, taxation and other departments, and establish a strict provident fund census (annual inspection) system with the support of the local government, so as to keep abreast of the establishment of the provident fund system and the payment of provident fund by enterprises, and identify problems. All departments work together to form a joint force. For example, the industrial and commercial department may refuse to handle the annual inspection and change registration of enterprise business licenses for enterprises that have not established a provident fund system; the labor department may not approve the recruitment of employees from the public for enterprises that have not paid their employees' provident funds; the taxation department may not approve the annual inspection of enterprise provident funds that do not meet the requirements. Tax registration and receipt of tax invoices shall be approved; the government enterprise reform approval department will not approve the restructuring plan for any enterprise that is in arrears with employee provident funds. 5. Strict corporate financial budget constraints and strengthen audit supervision of restructured enterprises. In response to the phenomenon that some enterprises have distorted cost reflections in financial statements, failed to accrue provident fund subsidies, and failed to make regular deposits of provident funds, financial and auditing departments at all levels must strengthen financial supervision of restructured enterprises and promote enterprises to make deposits for employees on time and in full. Provident Fund. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the management of intermediary agencies such as accounting firms, so that they can objectively and fairly evaluate and reflect the financial status and cost structure of enterprises. 6. Strengthen the administrative law enforcement of provident funds. For those enterprises that have ignored repeated publicity, refused to establish a provident fund system, defaulted on arrears, or misappropriated employees' provident funds, the Provident Fund Management Center must dare to use the "Regulations" as a weapon to carry out administrative law enforcement of provident funds and use legal means to bring the restructured enterprises back to normal. We must put the establishment of a provident fund system on the track and educate business owners to further enhance their legal awareness, and we must not ignore the legitimate rights and interests of enterprise employees.