Inquiry about the dismissal of colleagues' wages is due to the waywardness of the company
Feng Haining
Recently, the topic of "inquiring about colleague's salary being expelled" has appeared on Weibo's hot search.
According to "Guangzhou Daily" reports, this "inquirer" reported working at an Internet company, and because overtime work was similar to that of his colleagues, he asked his colleagues about their wages in the office.
As a result, the colleague did not wait for a positive reply, but what was waiting was the notice from the company's HR regarding the dismissal and the "normal compensation for compensation", and the parties were aggrieved.
Inquiring about colleagues' salaries is a common phenomenon in the workplace.
"Inquirers" are generally harmless, and just want to judge whether their salary is fair and reasonable by knowing the salary of their colleagues.
Generally speaking, this is a matter between colleagues, and the person who is inquired will just say it, and no one will force it.
However, many companies use pay confidentiality systems, pay confidentiality agreements, or labor contracts and employee handbooks to prohibit colleagues from inquiring about wages.
The company prohibits employees from inquiring about colleagues’ salaries. It is said that it is for the purpose of protecting employee privacy, preventing mutual comparison, reducing employee turnover, etc., but these reasons are actually untenable. Whether such privacy needs to be protected should be inquired by employees It’s up to the person to decide that the company should not overstep it.
Companies only see "comparison with each other" but not "mutual motivation".
Since the current law does not clearly stipulate this, and most companies are in a strong position, it is basically the company that has the final say if you cannot inquire about the salary of your colleagues.
Although the law gives companies a certain degree of independent management space, and allows companies and employees to voluntarily negotiate to resolve issues such as salary confidentiality, the dismissal of employees who inquire about colleagues' wages does not necessarily meet the legal requirements.
The above-mentioned "inquirers" were expelled. Frankly speaking, the company was too capricious.
Article 46 of my country's "Labor Law" stipulates that wage distribution should follow the principle of distribution according to work and implement equal pay for equal work.
The "inquirer" understands the wages of colleagues in order to verify whether the company's wage distribution complies with this legal principle.
If companies implement equal pay for equal work in strict accordance with the law, why are they afraid to "inquire about colleagues' wages"?
From this perspective, it is not too much for employees to inquire about their colleagues' wages, and it is too much for the company to expel employees.
Employees inquiring about colleagues' salaries may not cause major losses to the company.
The above-mentioned "inquirers" did not wait for a positive response from colleagues, and did not cause substantial losses to the company at all, and the dismissal of the "inquirers" by the company does not comply with the law.
According to the third paragraph of Article 39 of the "Labor Contract Law", the employer can terminate the labor contract only if the employee is seriously dereliction of duty, malpractices for personal gain, and causes significant damage to the employer.
The dismissal of employees on the grounds of "inquiring about colleagues' salaries" is a fuss and violates the law.
Even if "compensation is given normally", it cannot conceal that the company violates the law and infringes on the rights and interests of employees.
To put it further, the company's dismissal of employees in this way damages the employees' legal employment rights-the employees suddenly lose their jobs, and the little compensation paid to the employees is not enough to make up for their losses.
Such cases should arouse the attention of relevant parties.
Even if the company has a salary confidentiality system, or has signed a salary confidentiality agreement with its employees, these stipulations may not meet legal requirements.
According to the "Labor Contract Law", when an employer decides on rules and regulations or major matters directly related to the vital interests of the employee, it shall be discussed by the workers' congress or all the workers...and the trade union or the workers' representatives shall be negotiated and determined on an equal footing, and the company's salary confidentiality system Is it established in accordance with the law?
Enterprises cannot be too self-willed, neither can they arbitrarily formulate corporate salary confidentiality systems, nor can they dismiss employees who inquire about their colleagues' salaries at will.
Even if the "inquirer" violates the corporate system or related agreements and does not cause major losses, they should focus on education instead of expelling them.
This can only show that the company is too capricious and overbearing, neither taking the rights and interests of its employees nor relevant laws in mind.
It is worth thinking about whether it is possible to regulate "inquiry about colleagues' wages being expelled" in accordance with the law.
Because this issue has caused controversy many times, and labor arbitration or judicial organs have different judgments on such cases.
Only by standardizing in accordance with the law can such disputes be reduced.