"I seem to be off work, and I don't seem to be off work"
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The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security recently announced two typical cases in which companies were punished for illegally extending workers' working hours.
In addition to Beijing, Sichuan, Shandong, Anhui, Henan and other provinces have also begun to focus on investigating and rectifying the problem of overtime work.
"I'm either working overtime or working every day." Yu Hong, who works in a top accounting firm, posted a circle of friends with a picture of a subway station near the company. Even when she got home, many things on mobile office tools let her go. There is a feeling of "I seem to be off work, but I don't seem to be off work".
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security recently announced two typical cases in which companies were punished for illegally extending workers' working hours.
In addition to Beijing, Sichuan, Shandong, Anhui, Henan and other provinces have also begun to focus on investigating and rectifying the problem of overtime work.
Responding to popular voices but there are follow-up issues
In the announcement of the first batch of major labor security violations in 2022 recently released by the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, two companies were punished for illegally extending the working hours of workers.
Previously, the bureau also issued a notice that from March 15th to May 15th, a centralized inspection and rectification of the maintenance of working hours, rest and vacation rights and interests will be organized in the city, focusing on enterprises in key industries, and centralized inspection and rectification of overtime and overtime work.
With the development of the social economy and the improvement of the rule of law construction, the awareness of the dangers of overtime work has been strengthened from all walks of life. Prof. Lean, the deputy dean of the School of Labor Economics of Capital University of Economics and Business, believes that the call for punishing serious overtime and illegal overtime work is getting stronger and stronger. , This centralized rectification is a response to the voice of the people.
Huang Ruiqian, a human resources worker who has been engaged in related work for 10 years, believes that this centralized rectification of overtime work has safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of laborers, and it has also played a role as a wake-up call to some other companies that work overtime and overtime. Overtime work phenomenon.
The reporter noticed that the two companies in Beijing were only fined 7,000 yuan and 17,600 yuan for illegally extending the working hours of 14 and 44 workers. According to Article 25 of the "Labor Security Supervision Regulations", the employer violated labor laws. Where protection laws, regulations or rules extend the working hours of laborers, the labor and social security administrative department shall give a warning, order them to make corrections within a time limit, and may impose a fine of between 100 yuan and 500 yuan per victimized laborer.
Therefore, the standard of fines of 500 yuan per person is already the highest punishment, but in Huang Ruiqian's view, "the cost of illegality is too low", and the deterrent effect on enterprises will be reduced.
In the view of Wang Xiao, a teacher at the School of Labor Relations and Human Resources of the China Institute of Labor Relations, this rectification of overtime work has a certain exemplary role.
But for enterprises, fierce market competition is the driving force for them to find ways to make workers work more overtime; for workers, huge pressures such as employment, medical care, education, etc. are the external reasons forcing them to accept overtime work.
Therefore, punishing enterprises does not touch the essence of the phenomenon of overtime work, which will lead to follow-up problems of poor implementation.
How to define overtime as a pain point
It was past 10 pm when Yu Hong returned home from overtime, but she could not rest. Instead, she opened the office software and held a meeting with the project team members to discuss the final review of the audit project.
Not only Yu Hong, but many respondents said, "I seem to be off work, but I don't seem to be off work."
With the development of various mobile office products, employees are coerced into an environment where they are on standby "anytime, anywhere".
In such an environment, how to define overtime hours has become a "pain point".
my country has clear regulations on daily working hours. For example, the state implements a working hour system in which workers work no more than 8 hours a day and an average weekly working time of no more than 40 hours; employers should ensure that workers have at least one rest per week. day.
However, the definition of working time itself in legislation is rather vague.
If the company does not make it clear that employees need to work overtime, then employees continue to get off work after work as voluntary overtime, and the resulting overtime work is often not counted as overtime.
On the other hand, the existence of bad corporate culture makes overtime normalized.
So how to define the time of overtime work?
In this regard, Professor Range believes that overtime hours are usually extended hours of work by workers outside normal working hours to complete work tasks at the request of the employer. In practice, there is indeed uncertainty in the determination of overtime hours.
But objectively speaking, overtime hours are related to work tasks. The reason for overtime work, or even long-term overtime work, is related to the unreasonable distribution of work tasks, which involves the issue of labor quotas.
Wang Xiao also believes that the reason why it is difficult to supervise overtime overtime is that employee income, rank, etc. are linked to performance, and employees are willing to compromise with the management in order to keep their jobs and income, but simply prolonging working hours is not conducive to high-quality development.
How to stop working overtime
According to Huang Ruiqian, in actual work, if an enterprise that implements standard working hours needs to confirm that employees work overtime, approval is required. Their behavior also acts as an inhibitor, resulting in the phenomenon of "voluntary" overtime work.
Yu Hong, who had a remote meeting at home, looked at the time. It was 11:30 in the night. After taking the antihypertensive medicine, she could finally rest.
The long-term stay up late and high-intensity work made her body in her early 30s turn red. The doctor told her to take more rest to keep her blood pressure stable, but Yu Hong couldn't stop, and the whole project needed to be completed collaboratively. Colleagues who collaborate downstream can’t work, and the project will stop because of you.”
The harm of overtime work is multi-faceted. Professor Leo believes that one is the violation of workers’ right to rest and health. Serious overtime overtime may endanger the health of employees, and in severe cases, it may lead to sudden death from overwork.
The second is to undermine the fair competition order in the market. If there is no working time limit, companies will continue to extend the labor hours of workers to reduce costs, which is unfair to companies that abide by the working hours regulations.
So how do you stop working overtime?
In Huang Ruiqian's view, "the most important thing is to protect the legitimate rights and interests of employees, be fair and transparent, such as paying overtime or more wages in full and on time, and follow the voluntary principle." The scope also believes that labor quota standards should be standardized and established. Awareness and system of legal employment; at the same time, strengthen labor supervision and law enforcement, and increase the cost of illegal enterprises.
"In fact, many overtime work is waiting for the handover of the relevant links of the project team." Yu Hong said that enterprises can use more efficient organization and management capabilities to avoid ineffective overtime, and try their best to allow employees to improve efficiency within reasonable and legal office hours .
Gan Xi