【China Labor Security News】Improve policy mechanisms to safeguard the employment rights and interests of the silver haired population

Source: China Labor Security News, June 18, 2024, 3rd edition

Xue Huiyuan, Wu Xinyun

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the need to "implement the national strategy of actively responding to population aging". With the accelerating process of population aging, encouraging young elderly people with surplus capacity to re-enter the workforce is conducive to fully tapping into the potential of human resources, alleviating the pressure of insufficient labor supply, and injecting new impetus into economic growth. The author suggests prioritizing the inclusion of over age workers in work-related injury insurance, exploring more and better employment opportunities, and strengthening labor protection supervision and inspection.

The protection of the rights and interests of over aged workers faces challenges

Firstly, the demand for employment is becoming increasingly strong, but generally speaking, the employment level is not high and the employment channels are not smooth.

With the extension of the average life expectancy of the elderly population and the increase in the initial age of labor participation, the increase in labor participation rate among the elderly is a universal trend in the world. The average life expectancy in our country is almost the same as that of developed countries, but the statutory retirement age is relatively early. More and more young elderly people with both physical conditions and employment willingness are actively exploring opportunities for re-employment, achieving a sense of purpose in their old age. However, due to exceeding the statutory retirement age, they have become a special group in the labor market.

Overall, overage workers can be divided into "self-sufficient", "family oriented", and "ideal" types, and the first two types are the main components of overage workers. "Self sufficiency" is to maintain their basic life, mainly in rural registered residence. Due to the weakening of the family's elderly care function and the increasing pressure on their children's lives, their ability to support them has also shown a downward trend. This group of overage workers have to continue working to maintain their current livelihood and prepare for retirement savings in advance. The "family oriented" type is designed to subsidize family expenses. Families with sick family members, elderly people, and multiple children often face greater economic pressure. Even if young elderly people have sufficient savings and pensions to maintain their livelihoods, they will actively share some of the economic responsibilities in order to alleviate the pressure on their children. The "ideal type" is designed to utilize residual heat. This type of overage worker is relatively rare and usually possesses good labor skills, making them highly sought-after in the labor market.

Due to age, physical fitness, educational level, and work ethics, "self-sufficient" and "family oriented" overage workers lack bargaining power in the job market, and the vast majority can only engage in simple physical labor such as security guards, cleaners, waiters, and sanitation workers. The recruitment requirements for these job are scattered and often rely on referrals from acquaintances as a recruitment method. The opacity and asymmetry of recruitment information can easily lead to insufficient matching of supply and demand in the job market, as well as unstable employment conditions for over aged workers. Even in order to obtain employment opportunities, they may have to sacrifice some reasonable demands or accept unreasonable working conditions.

Secondly, individual rights and interests urgently require legal protection, and the road to safeguarding legitimate rights is not easy.

The group of overage workers has not been clearly defined in China's existing labor legal system. In many regions, without labor relations recognized by labor laws, overage workers are unable to pay various social insurance premiums and enjoy the rights that workers should have. In most cases, overage workers can only establish labor relations with employers within the framework of civil law.

In terms of the right to remuneration, the road to safeguarding the rights of over aged workers against wage arrears is even more difficult. Labor arbitration and labor supervision must accept cases within the scope of labor laws, and over aged workers can only sue through the court if they want to protect their rights. However, the high litigation costs, lengthy litigation process, the possibility of the defendant refusing to execute the judgment, and the resistance of the elderly to judicial channels have hindered their progress in safeguarding their rights. In addition, it is also more difficult for overage workers to enjoy equal employment and career choices, rest and vacation, receive vocational skills training, and labor protection.

Protecting the employment rights and interests of over aged workers

One is to facilitate employment channels, strengthen skills training, and explore more high-quality employment opportunities.

Employment opportunities and wage income are the two most concerning issues for overage workers. On the one hand, a dedicated recruitment and communication platform should be established for over aged workers, and employment events should be organized to organize and release "aging friendly" jobs with high demand for young and elderly workers, promoting the matching of supply and demand between employers and workers. On the other hand, we should expand the supply of educational resources for overage workers, provide more job skills training, psychological counseling for reemployment, etc., and provide certain material incentives for overage workers who are willing to participate in skills training.

The second is to strengthen labor protection supervision and inspection, improve the working environment and overwork situation.

Over aged workers are concentrated in small and micro enterprises, where their awareness of labor protection is usually weak. For enterprises with a high proportion of overage workers, on the one hand, they should strengthen the inspection and supervision of labor protection, regularly carry out occupational disease hazard factor testing, and punish those who refuse to accept rectification opinions. On the other hand, enterprises should be urged to follow the working hours and rest and vacation system, popularize and publicize relevant laws and regulations, and carry out centralized investigation and rectification of enterprises with frequent work overtime problems.

Thirdly, priority should be given to inclusion in work-related injury insurance to safeguard the most basic right to physical health.

Participating in work-related injury insurance has typicality and urgency in protecting the rights and interests of over aged workers. Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Sichuan, Tianjin, Shandong and other provinces have already introduced relevant measures for over age workers to participate in work-related injury insurance. Other provinces and cities should be encouraged to learn from the experience and formulate relevant measures as soon as possible according to local conditions.

At present, in many regions, except for the construction industry which participates in work-related injury insurance according to projects, over aged workers in other industries are mostly in a "blank" state of work-related injury insurance. On the one hand, it is necessary to explore ways to allow overage individuals to participate in work-related injury insurance through a single type of insurance, which can be applied for by the employer on a voluntary basis to the local handling agency. On the other hand, differential treatment should be allowed for the payment of benefits, and whether to include it in the payment scope should be considered based on the project objectives. For example, medical expenses, assistive device fees, rehabilitation fees, etc. aimed at health recovery should be included, while one-time disability employment subsidies aimed at promoting re employment should not be included.

(Author affiliation: Wuhan University Social Security Research Center)