Judicial referees support the legitimate rights and interests of workers in new industries. Interview with Wu Jingli, deputy chief judge of the First Civil Trial Division of the Supreme People's Court

　　□ Reporter Zhao Ying

　　□ Hu Jianxia, ​​trainee reporter of this newspaper

　　Recently, Wu Jingli, deputy director of the First Civil Trial Division of the Supreme People's Court, was interviewed by a reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" on topics related to the protection of workers' legitimate rights and interests in new employment forms. She said that when the status of employers and workers is unequal, "invisible "Overtime" may become a hidden way to increase workers' workload. If it is not regulated in accordance with the law, workers will face an increase in working hours and no increase in wages, and their rights to rest and remuneration will be infringed.

　　"Invisible overtime" counts as overtime

　　With the development of digital information technology, workers can complete work in non-traditional office spaces and submit their labor results online, and can communicate anytime and anywhere.

　　Wu Jingli said that some employers arrange work for workers at any time online and require workers to use their rest time to complete the work as soon as possible, which results in the blurring of the boundaries between work and rest and the dilemma of workers being required to work at any time.

Workers are outside the office, but are actually working, and their right to rest is violated.

The working status and life scenes of workers are intertwined, making it difficult to specifically distinguish and quantify overtime, presenting the characteristic of "invisibility of overtime".

In practice, employers who hold online meetings during non-working hours or require workers to complete work tasks during this period fall into the category of "invisible overtime".

　　In order to protect workers' right to rest and physical health, my country strictly restricts employers from extending workers' working hours, and stipulates that employers who extend workers' working hours must pay overtime pay in accordance with the law.

　　Recently, a "invisible overtime" labor dispute case involving the use of social software for work was selected into the "Top Ten Cases of 2023 to Promote the Rule of Law in the New Era."

　　According to Wu Jingli, this case broke through the requirements for a fixed workplace and quantifiable working hours in traditional overtime identification cases, and clarified the rules of "substantial labor" and "obvious occupation of time" as the identification criteria for "invisible overtime" , to ensure that workers are not treated differently due to flexible working hours and remote working working modes, so that the rights and interests of "hidden overtime" are no longer "invisible".

　　Resolving “cloud office” disputes

　　The development of digital technology has promoted the transformation of the economy and society. New working methods such as online office have the advantages of cost saving and flexible working methods. The tools provided by workers have changed from physical to digital, and new labor models such as remote labor have emerged. Allow workers to gain more autonomy.

　　However, while technology is universally beneficial, this new labor model has also caused new disputes.

　　Wu Jingli said that judging from trial practice, there are problems in the protection of workers' rights and interests such as the difficulty in identifying labor relations under the "cloud office" working model, the difficulty in identifying work-related injuries of "cloud office" workers, and the difficulty in providing evidence.

The rapid development of new business forms such as the Internet economy has also brought new challenges to the work of building harmonious labor relations.

　　In this regard, the People's Court, in accordance with the labor law, labor contract law and other legal provisions, combined with the new employment model, determines the labor relationship in accordance with the law, and protects workers' rights to rest, the right to receive labor remuneration and other legitimate rights and interests.

　　At the same time, the Supreme People's Court has given full play to the joint efforts of mediation, arbitration, and trial work to "grasp the front end and treat the disease before it occurs", extending the "adjustment" of the docking of litigation and mediation forward, and improving the working mechanism for joint resolution of the source of conflicts and disputes and docking of litigation and mediation, starting from the source Prevent and reduce conflicts and disputes.

Adhering to the concept of active justice, through typical cases and case-by-case judgments, we will form a joint effort to curb illegal phenomena such as "invisible overtime" and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers.

　　Support and standardize the development of new business formats

　　In recent years, the platform economy has developed rapidly, and the number of workers in new employment forms has increased significantly. Labor disputes in new employment forms have also increased, and problems such as difficulty in safeguarding workers' rights and long-term running have become prominent.

　　Nowadays, the protection of the rights and interests of workers in the new employment form is faced with new problems such as employers using "outsourcing blindness" to avoid responsibilities, difficulties in determining compliance review standards for labor management algorithms, and unclear responsibility sharing mechanisms.

　　Wu Jingli said that the Supreme People's Court implements the dynamic judicial concept of the new era, promotes the implementation of the employment priority strategy, and launches a series of practical and effective work measures to provide judicial guarantee for promoting high-quality full employment and building harmonious labor relations.

Together with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, we will jointly publish typical cases of labor disputes in new forms of employment, support the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in issuing model labor contracts and written agreements for workers in new forms of employment, and formulate relevant guidelines and opinions on safeguarding rights and interests.

　　At the same time, the Supreme People's Court has promoted the formulation of judicial guidance documents related to anti-employment discrimination, focusing on solving the problem of difficulty in safeguarding rights against employment discrimination.

Draft judicial recommendations on strengthening the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of over-age workers, and coordinate with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to promote the management of litigation sources of conflicts and disputes in the labor field.

Together with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, we will promote online complaint and mediation work to resolve labor disputes in a diversified manner.

Multiple departments jointly implemented the "salary protection" action and published typical cases involving disputes over wage arrears.

　　"In the next step, the Supreme People's Court will promote the release of typical cases, promote the formulation of judicial interpretations of new employment forms, support and standardize the development of new business forms. Promote the integrated resolution of labor disputes in new employment forms, and maintain labor relations harmony and social stability." Wu Jingli said.