Bilingual Lawyers Legal Service Center  Hotline: 18930220709

专业法律服务

Professional Solution

 

中英双语律师网

Bilingual Lawyers

Legal Sense, Business Acumen​                       Law and Practice in China

Latest Articles

更多
Equal Pay for Equal Work--Labor Dispatch
According to DaHe News, an informal employee suited his employer for unequal pay for equal work for ten years among other things in a local Hebi Court. The court awarded him about 380,000 RMB damages, among which the unequal payment difference was 279,411 RMB. The reliability of the news still needs verification, though.

Considering the severity of the matter, we consulted our Chief Counsel, Jennifer Jiang. According to Jennifer Jiang, equal payment for equal work is not a new law term.
（Author: Jennifer Jiang, Chief Attorney of Bilingual Lawyers)

According to DaHe News, an informal employee suited his employer for unequal pay for equal work for ten years among other things in a local Hebi Court. The court awarded him about 380,000 RMB damages, among which the unequal payment difference was 279,411 RMB. The reliability of the news still needs verification, though.

Considering the severity of the matter, we consulted our Chief Counsel, Jennifer Jiang. According to Jennifer Jiang, equal payment for equal work is not a new law term. In early 1995, Article 46 of the Labor Law says, “Wages shall be distributed on the basis of work and under the principle of equal pay for equal work…”. Then this year, in the amendment of the Labor Contract Law, Article 64 is revised as, “Dispatched workers shall be entitled to equal pay for equal work as the permanent staff members of an employer. The employer shall, pursuant to the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, apply the same labor remunerations distribution measures to dispatched workers and its permanent staff members holding similar positions...” . Also in the 18th CPC National Congress, collective salary negotiation system was proposed. The Ministry of human Resource and Social Security released several relevant documents such as Rainbow Plan for promoting collective contract system. All these documents are meant to protect the right of equal pay for equal work.

However, when we talk about equal pay for equal work, we cannot avoid the differences of individuals. Due to the differences of employees, equal pay for equal work is even hard among the formal employees. Employees are different in capabilities, education, gender, etc; while employers are different in industry, ownership, location, etc. The definition of equal pay for equal work itself is a highly controversial topic. The main reason it becomes popular in media is labor dispatch. Labor dispatch once caused a lot of disturbances in society and people look forward to a solution. However, law itself is not a panacea and cannot change the current pressure of enterprises and the job environment of employees. If the above case is true, we don’t think it can be repeated in a large scale because if so, it will cause a great social disturbance again. In all likelihood, there will be a step by step improvement.

From the perspective of law itself, avoiding the risks of labor dispatch is easy. One is business outsourcing and the other is service contract instead of labor contract with individuals. Also in the amendment of the Labor Contract Law, the exact wording is “the same labor remunerations distribution measures” instead of “same labor remunerations”, which can also be manipulated. Therefore, the emphasis of equal pay for equal work is a good progress, but its realization is likely a long process.