Research report phase 2.0 of work resumption situation in China: Private firms may become the most important section in employment maintenance
*This report was written by a labour organization in Guangdong province, and the author owns the copyright. It is prohibited to reprint this article without the author's permission.
 
From the previous survey report of work resumption condition during the COVID-19 outbreak in China (“report 1”), we revealed that around 78% employees participated in our research delayed their work resumption time. During the delayed work resumption period, only fewer than 30% workers received normal salary. As the pandemic severity has decreased since the report 1 completed and production has gradually resumed, a labour organization in Guangdong launched the second phase of online survey research on work resumption situation during April 17 to 27, 2020.
 
The target participants of this study were employees who were working or “not working while employment retaining” and totally 331 valid responses were collected. Since the questionnaire distribution went through the Internet (WeChat), the range of locations and job types of the interviewees were limited. Nearly half of the participants worked in Guangdong (around 48.6%) and most participants in Guangdong participants were employed in Foshan (around 34.4% of total participants).
 
Instead of a comprehensive and precise reflection of the general work resumption situation in China, this survey provides a specifically localized information for further reference.
 
The basic information is summarized as below.
 
Part 1 Participant basic information
 
Table 1: Basic information of the participant

Type

Option

Ratio

Gender

Distribution

Male

53.78%

Female

46.22%

Age

Distribution

<18 years old

2.11%

18-25 years old

22.96%

26-45 years old

62.84%

46-55years old

10.27%

>55 years old

1.81%

Household

Registration

Region

Distribution

Guangdong

48.64%

Guangxi

7.55%

Hunan

7.55%

Sichuan

6.34%

Hubei

4.23%

Jiangsu

3.32%

Henan

3.32%

Others

19.03%

Work

Region

Distribution

Guangdong

78.55%

Jiangsu

7.85%

Others

13.60%

Industry

Distribution

Manufacturing

30.51%

Agriculture

0.6%

Construction

3.93%

Finance and insurance

2.42%

Transport, post and telecommunication services

3.63%

Social work, health care, sports, and social welfare facilities

18.13%

Trades like garment, catering and shops

4.83%

Education, culture, arts and broadcasting and television

6.65%

Household services and consultation

1.81%

Scientific research and polytechnic services

2.42%

Others

25.08%

Nature of

the employer

Foreign capital

4.83%

Chinese-foreign joint funded

3.63%

State-owned

9.97%

Private

56.8%

Government

7.85%

Others

16.92%

Job position

Production worker, transportation worker and some physical worker

32.33%

Service industry worker

23.26%

Business worker

2.72%

Agricultural worker

0%

Professional and technician

14.8%

Clerk

10.57%

Person in charge

2.42%

Others

13.9%

 

Firstly, similar as in report 1, the majority of the respondents was young to middle-aged worker in Guangdong province. Around 63% of our participants aged 26-45 years old and 73% aged 26-55 years old. As analyzed in report 1, young and middle-aged workers are usually the main source of financial income in households. It could reflect the economic problems among many families during the epidemic period.
 
Also, about 79% of our participants worked in Guangdong and most of them were general workers. Management level staff and technicians only account for around 17% of the total respondents.
 
Secondly, the interviewees came from diverse range of industries. Manufacture (30%) and social work and social welfare were the major industries in which the respondents were working. This distribution pattern may result from the fact that the questionnaire was distributed by a social organization.
 
Thirdly, private enterprises have become the main employers in the labour market (56.8%), much higher than that taken by other types of employers.
 
Part 2 Main Section
 
On 6th February 2020, Guangdong Province issued a series of policy supporting companies for work resumption.  According to the local news report (Yangcheng Evening News, 26th February 2020) , until 21st February 2020, nearly 42,000 enterprises had resumed production in Guangdong, with a work resumption rate of 82.2%. In Guangzhou and Yangjiang, the work resumption rate of enterprises exceeded 90% and that ratio in Zhaoqing, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Shaoguan, Zhongshan and Chaozhou was higher than 80%.
 
From the above data, Guangdong province, like most areas in China, the work resumption progress was about to complete at the time of the current survey started (17th April, 2020). Therefore, this survey focused on the work situation after work resumption.
 
1. Employment starting time and length of service
 
(1) More than 80% of the respondents were employed before COVID-19
 
As COVID-19 outbreak was an emergency, the analysis of work starting time and length of service, with reference time point of COVID-19 outbreak starting time, had limited previous data. Therefore, the researchers conducted descriptive analysis for this part, as presented in Figure 1.
 
Table 2: Employment starting date and length of service

Type

Option

Ratio

Your employment starting date

Before 23rd January 2020

80.97%

January 24th to 8th February 2020

2.42%

9th February 2020 to 29th February 2020

5.74%

After 1st March 2020

10.88%

Your length of service

in the current company

(how long have you been working here?)

Less than 3 months

14.2%

3 months to 1 year

22.05%

1 year - 3 years

30.82%

3 years - 10 years

22.36%

More than 10 years

10.57%

 

From Table 2, around 81% of the respondents started working before 23rd January, 2020, the outbreak time of COVID-19. The rest about 19% interviewees started their employment after COVID-19 outbreak.
 
(2) Around 10% of the interviewees started their current work during or after the work resumption period (“the new employee” in short). Their reasons for leaving the previous job were generally not related to COVID-19.
 
According to the relevant regulation and policy, 9th February 2020 was the last day of production stoppage in China. Most areas, including Guangdong province, had resumed production since that day. Only 34 participants over the 331 valid respondents was reported to start their present work during or after the work resumption wave. The 34 participants fell into the following three conditions,  “starting their existing works from 9th February 2020 to 29th February 2020”, “starting their works after 1st March 2020”, and “working in the existing enterprises less than three months”.  They occupied around 10% of the total interviewees.
 
For these interviewees, their reasons for leaving the previous work are shown in the following Table 3.
 
Table 3: The reasons why you leave your previous enterprise (in Foshan)

Reasons

Ratio

COVID-19 Pandemic

3%

Occupational injuries/diseases

12%

Long-time wages arrears of the enterprises

6%

Enterprises’ difficulty to operate/redundancy

15%

Personal reasons

44%

Never change job before

14%

Others

6%

 
The survey result indicated that from work resumption wave started to the end of our data collection period, no significant relationship between leaving the previous job and COVID-19 incidence. However, there are still possible influences from COVID-19 on the future labour market. 
 
(3) The private firms were possibly the main “job provider” in the post-COVID-19 China
 
 
Table 4.1: Employment date of the new employees

 

Early than 2020.01.24

Between 2020.01.24

and 2020.02.08

State-owned company

100%

0%

Foreign capital

and Chinese-foreign

joint funded company

79.57%

0%

Private firm

75.77%

3.61%

 

Table 4.2: Employment date of the new employees

 

Between 2020.02.09

and 2020.02.29

After 2020.03.01

State-owned company 

0%

0%

Foreign capital

and Chinese-foreign

joint funded company

3.57%

17.86%

Private firm

7.73%

12.89%

 

From Table 4, “foreign capital and Chinese-foreign joint funded company”(21.4%) provided similar proportion of job opportunities for the new employees as “private firms”(20.6%). However, consider of the data in Basic Information section that more than half of the respondents (56.8%) worked in private firms, while only 8.46% worked in foreign-funded companies or Chinese-foreign joint funded companies, the influence from private firms on Chinese labour market was significant. 

 
2. Labour right protection situation
 
(1) Employment contract and social insurance
 
Among all respondents claimed “employment relation existing” with their employers, 85% of them signed employment contract and 72% purchased social insurance. However, for the new employees, only 50% of them purchased social insurance.
 
When it comes to the responses of “relation with your employer”, 68% of the respondents selected “employment relation”(24%, “dispatched labour”, and 8%, other relations). 
 
The following questions required the participants with self-reported employment relation to provide information related to their employment contract and social insurance. 85% of them signed employment contract but only 59% had contract in duplicate and hold a copy of their contract. 72% of the respondents in employment relation received five Insurances from their employers. (See Table 5 and 6 below)
 
Table 5: Did you sign employment contract with the employer?

Option

Ratio

Yes, I had contract in duplicate and hold a copy of my contract

59%

Yes, but I don't hold a copy of my contract

26%

No

13%

I don't know

25

 

Table 6: Did you receive five Insurances from your employer?

Option

Ratio

Yes

72%

I Only recieved occupational injury insurance 

6%

I Only recieved commercial accident insurance

6%

No

16%

 

“Employment contract in duplicate, each party hold one copy” and “Five Insurances purchased by the employer” were stated in the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China. Only 54.9% of total respondents gave positive responses for the two mentioned questions. The result indicated that 54.9% of total participants worked for employers provided employment contract and social insurance compliance with the relevant regulation in Labor Contract Law.
 
70.5%  of the new employees reported that they had enjoyed employment relation and 79.2% of them had signed employment contracts with their enterprises, but only half of them enjoyed social insurance from the employers.
 
(2) Occupational health and labour protection benefits related to COVID-19
 
Firstly, 87% of respondents needed to wear protective gears and 75% of them received free protective items from their employers.
 
Among all participants, about 87% of them needed to wear protective items during working. 75% of their employers provided free protective gears while around 21% needed to buy protective items by themselves.
 
Secondly, more than 60% of the interviewees worried about infecting COVID-19 from working.
 
The survey reflected that more than 62% of our participants worried about infecting COVID-19 from working, and around 25.7% reported seriously worried. See the Figure 9 for details.
 
 
Table7: Are you worrying about infecting COVID-19 due to working? 

Options

Number

Ratio

Seriously worried

85

25.68%

Worried

121

36.56%

Not worried

125

37.76%

Total Responses

331

 

 

Thirdly, 86% of the respondents thought that infection of COVID-19 during working should be treated as work-related injuries.
 
On 23rd January 2020, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Finance and National Health Commission co-issued an announcement to clarify under what conditions, the employees with COVID-19 infection would be classified as occupational injuries victims: employees involving COVID-19 prevention and treatment related work who infected COVID-19 or died due to COVID-19 infection during job duties performing.
 
However, more than 86% of the participants claimed that infecting COVID-19 when performing job duties should be regarded as work-related injuries. The reasons for this misunderstanding may be: 1) employees were not fully informed with the relevant policy, or 2) employees were more willing to be included as work-related injuries for COVID-19 infection during working, regardless of job nature.  
 
(3) Labour right issues such as wage payment and working hours
 
Firstly, for the employees resumed working:
 
  • 28% of them had irregular weekly working days: 22% had no weekly rest days while 6% worked fewer than four days per week;
  • 41% worked overtime during regular working days and 7% worked more than 12 hours per day;
  • 46% of them received monthly salary between 3,001 to 5,000 CNY: 71% earned no more than 5,000 CNY per month and 25% no more than 3,000 CNY monthly.
 
The research team analyzed the responses to questions working days, hours and salary level from the 282 participants who selected “work resumed”.
 
From the participants who had resumed working, 6% of them worked no more than four days per week while 22% worked seven days per week (no rest day). 34% of them worked 9-11 hours per day and 7% worked more than 12 hours daily. See Table 8 and 9 below.
 
Table 8: How many days do you work in a week?

Option

Ratio

No more than 4 days

6%

5 to 6 days

22%

7 days

72%

 

Table 9: How many hours do you work daily?

Option

Ratio

No more than 8 hours

56%

9 to 11 hours

34%

More than 11 hours

7%

Others

3%

 
Nearly half of the participants who resumed working earned 3,001 to 5,000 CNY per month (46%) while a quarter of them earned less than 3,000 CNY monthly, as shown in Table 10 below.
 
Table 10: Monthly salary

Option

Ratio

No more than 2000 CNY

6%

2000 to 3000 CNY

14%

3001 to 5000 CNY

46%

5001 to 8000 CNY

21%

8000 to 10000 CNY

6%

More than 10000 CNY

2%

Without income

5%

 

Secondly, for the respondents who had not resumed working or working came to a halt: nearly 60% of them earned less than 3,000 CNY per month.
 
Totally 49 participants had not started work resumption. 57% of them earned less than 3,000 CNY per month: this part included 26.5% participants without income.
 
Table11: Monthly salary of the employees who do not returned to work

Option

Ratio

No more than 2000 CNY

16.3%

2000 to 3000 CNY

14.2%

3001 to 5000 CNY

24.4%

5001 to 8000 CNY

12.2%

8000 to 10000 CNY

2%

More than 10000 CNY

4%

Without income

26.5%

 

Thirdly, comparison of working conditions between pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 time:
 
  • Working hours: 18% of the participants increased working hours while 33% reduced;
  • Salary level: 12% of them had a higher salary level while 34% had a lower one;
  • Workload: 32% of our participants increased workloads while 27% decreased;
  • Amount of employees in their companies: 20% of our participants had more employees in their companies while 37% had fewer ones.
 
We summarized the responses to working condition changes from interviewees started current employment before 23rd January 2020 in the table below (Table12). The relevant questions covered working time, salary level, workload and employee number in their companies. From the survey responses, participants reported changes in the four mentioned aspects to different extents.
 
Table 12.1: Changes comparing with pre-COVID time?

 

Working time

Salary level

Significantly increased

7.55%

1.51%

Slightly increased

10.57%

11.18%

Same

49.24%

52.87%

Slightly decreased

20.54%

20.24%

Significantly decreased

12.08%

14.2%

 
Table 12.2: Changes comparing with pre-COVID time?
 

Workload

Employee number in your company

Significantly increased

10.57%

4.53%

Slightly increased

21.45%

15.41%

Same

41.39%

42.6%

Slightly decreased

17.52%

27.79%

Significantly decreased

9.06%

9.67%

 
3. Special labour right: Quarantine time and Hubei employees’ labour right conditions 
 
(1) Labour right issues during quarantine: more than 8% of the interviewees was quarantined, with unsatisfactory labour right conditions.
 
  • 41% of the quarantined interviewees need to pay the quarantine fee by themselves;
  • Nearly 30% of the quarantined interviewees received no salary payment during the quarantine period;
  • Foreign capital companies and Chinese-foreign joint funded companies 100% paid for the quarantine costs of their staff; governmental employers 100% paid full salary to their employees during quarantine period; labour right conditions during quarantine period varied in a wide range among private firms.
 
Table13: Quarantine period

Option

Ratio

2 to 3 days

8%

7 days

17%

14 to 15 days

63%

20 days

4%

More than 42 days

8%

 

Table 14: Who paid the quarantine fee?

Option

Ratio

Self-funded

41%

No charge

44%

Employer

15%

 

Table 15: Where did you live during the quarantine? 

Option

Ratio

Home

70%

Employee's department

8%

Hotel

7%

Hospital

7%

Centralized quarantine

4%

Others

4%

 

Table 16: How many payments did you receive during the quarantine?

Option

Ratio

Full salary payment

22%

Basic payment

37%

70% of the basic payment

3.7%

No payment

29.6%

Others

7.4%

 
From table 13 to 16, the major form of quarantine among our respondents was home-quarantine (78%, including quarantine in dorms). More than 88% of the interviewees had a quarantine period of 15 days or less, but 41% claimed that they needed a self-funded quarantine period. Only 22% of quarantined respondents received full salary payment while nearly 30% of them received no payment.
 
We sorted the labour right issues by the nature of employers (state-owned company, partially or fully foreign-funded company and private firm) in the table below (Table 17). Partially or fully foreign-funded companies covered full cost of quarantine for their employees and state-owned companies paid full salary for the quarantined labour. But it varied among private firms based on various kinds of business models and operation.  Please see the table 17.
 
Table 17: Quarantine period employee right:
state-owned company vs partially or fully foreign-funded company vs private firm

 

Employee 
qurantine 
ratio
Quarantine fee
Salary payment 
State-owned
company
7.69%
50% paid by employee
50% free/paid by employer
100% full salary payment
Partially or fully
foreign-funded
company
7.14%
100% free/paid by employer
100% basic salary payment
Private firm
9.28%
44.44% paid by employee
55.56% free/paid by employer
17% full salary payment
28% full payment
5% 70% of the full payment
39% without payment
11% others
 
(2) Labour right protection for Hubei workers: highly likely to be unfairly treated
 
According to the answers, 100 respondents had colleagues came back to work from Hubei province. 74% of the 100 participants reported that Hubei staff in their company was required to be quarantined. 11% of the interviewees shared that their enterprises had asked employees from Hubei province to work separately from other staff, 6% shared that their enterprises had lowered the salary level of Hubei employees and 2% shared that their enterprises had terminated the employment relations with Hubei employees. Moreover, 6% of our respondents shared that their enterprises had banned Hubei colleagues to go back to work. Only 10% reported about normal salary payment for their Hubei colleagues. See the details from the table below (Table 18).
 
Table 18: Action by your company on employees returned from Hubei(100 valid responses)

Options

Number

Ratio

Quarantine

74

74%

Separated working place

11

11%

Full payment of salary comparing with pre-COVID time

10

10%

Reduced salary level

6

6%

End the contract

2

2%

Not allowing them return working

6

6%

 
4. 37% of the participants indicated that their labour rights had been deprived without going through democratic negotiation
 
From table 19, around 63% of the interviewees reported that there were not violations of labour rights without going through democratic mediation in their enterprises. In other words, about 37% of the participants suffered from this problem.

Table 19: Are these situations existed in your company?

Option

Ratio

Lower the salary level without negotiation

12.69%

Change the job duties without negotiation

9.06%

Lower the job position without negotiation

3.63%

Incomplete payment of salary during the delayed work resumption period

12.69%

Pay no salary during the work halted period or on leave

16.62%

Decide the lay-off or work-halted employee list without negotiation

4..53%

None of above

63.44%

 
Part 3. COVID-19 on current life and the future
 
More than 78% of the interviewees thought that COVID-19 caused difficulties in their life and 18% regarded it as “serious difficulties”.
 
About the work-related pressure, more than 46% of our respondents are worried about losing their jobs, 49% about COVID-19 infection at work and 27% about wages arrears.
 
As mentioned before, the majority of our respondents are young and middle-aged workers aged 26-45 years old. This age group is generally the main source of income in household. They usually bear the pressure of fostering their children, supporting the senior-aged and even the mortgage. In Guangdong province, the annual average expenditure level per head was 28,995 CNY in 2019 (2,416 per person per month) and 34,424 CNY for urban residents. The data provide a reference for understanding the result that “71% of our respondents earned less than 5,000 CNY per month”. For a couple to support a family with four members, each person needs to earn 4832.5 CNY. For a four person family with only one member working with monthly salary level lower than 5,000 CNY, the income per head in this family is only around 1,000 CNY.
 
COVID-19 caused an increased risk of being unemployed for the workers in China. It is a worth-considering social issue.
 
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