/pub/FDI/zgjj/tzhj/zzysh/shbztx/qt/t20060830_59723.htmIn the first half of the year, Labour and Social Security departments fully practiced the concept of scientific development and seriously carried out educational activities to maintain the advanced nature of Party members, in an effort to realize “double no-delay and double promotion”. In line with the deploy by Central Committee of CPC and the State Council, the departments furthered the efforts in increasing employment and reemployment, improving the social security system and protecting the legal rights of laborers. In such a way, social security work advanced smoothly and achieved new progress.

1. Employment and Reemployment

In the first half of the year, employment and reemployment were pushed forward smoothly, major indices of which all reached more than half of the year’s total task. From January to June, China achieved an accumulated new-added urban employment of 5.95 million people, 52% of the year’s total task (5 million). Hereinto, “4050” people (female aged over 40, male aged over 50) saw a reemployment of 0.66 million, 66% of the year’s total task (1 million). By the end of June, the registered employment in urban areas was 8.34 million all over the country, or a registered unemployment rate of 4.2%，the same with that of the end of last year. The major measures taken are as follows:

(1) Clarified objectives and responsibilities. In the beginning of the year, the special plan of employment and reemployment was printed and distributed to clarify the objectives of “95146” (new-added urban employment of 9.0 million, laid-off reemployment of 5.0 million, reemployment of “4050” people of 1.0 million and registered urban unemployment of 4.6% or below) to grass roots and to gradually establish the responsibility system, which was surveyed monthly to guarantee the fulfillment.

(2) Increased the support of capital for special use. While maintaining the size of special subsidies for basic subsistence allowance of laid-offs from state-owned enterprises this year, the central government allocated an additional special subsidy of RMB 2.6 billion Yuan for reemployment. Thus, the total amount of the two items of capital reached 20.9 billion Yuan. In May, Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Ministry of Finance granted the subsidies of 18.84 billion Yuan to each province; while local governments also increased the capital input for employment and reemployment.

(3) Strengthened services and implemented policies. Since the beginning of this year, several nationwide special events have been organized. First was the “Reemployment Assistant Month”, targeting at the people that were difficult to be reemployed with major content of “Four Presents and One Fulfillment” (present policy, present post, present skill, present service and fulfill the policy of social security subsidy). Second was the nationwide “Actual Effect of Policy”, which required local departments to take more efforts in fulfilling the policy and in helping more people to be reemployed, to check out the difficult points in policy fulfillment and overcome them timely, and to actually solve the focused problems from laid-offs so as to see effects of the policy. Third was the “Private-owned Enterprise Recruitment Week” which was carried out in 100 large and middle cities, targeting at laid-offs, college graduates and technical workforce. During the event, more than 6,000 recruitment activities were organized, 1.32 million messages about job vacancies were provided, more than 300,000 people were provided with policy consultation and 520,000 people reached the employment of intent, 35% of who were laid-offs and 21% were college graduates. At present, the special service of matching skills and posts is being carried out, with the theme of “Meet Urgent Demand of Enterprises, Serve for Technical Talents”. Under the spirit of national conference on talents, the training project of national senior technical talents in east region was launched which was aimed at improving labors’ skills in working or starting a business in the first half of the year.  

(4) Positively improved the employment environment for farmer workers to work in cities. Considering the employment peak when farmer workers come back to cities around Spring Festival, we cooperated with Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Personnel and State Administration of Industry& Commerce to carry out “Spring Breeze Action” and the special action to rectify the labor market. We opened a batch of public employment agencies, recommended a batch of credible privately-run ones, honored a batch of excellent privately-run ones and cracked down a batch of illegal ones. During the action, we granted 11 million “spring breeze cards” to farmer workers, hold 4,500 employment fairs, provided 1.1 million farmer workers with free employment introduction services and offered more than 4 million posts that were suitable to farmer workers. Meanwhile, we examined 59,000 employment agencies and employers, filed more than 19,000 cases in illegal employment introduction to investigate, clamped down 7,200 illegal employment agencies, issued nearly 6,000 notices to require rectification and charged agencies to return unlawfully collected fees of 13 million Yuan to job hunters. By these actions, the order of labor market has been visibly improved.

It is a long-term, complex and arduous task to solve the problem of employment in our country. In the second half of the year, in accordance with the deploy and requirement of Central Committee of CPC and the State Council, we will try to have the early judgment, quick action, careful thoughts and sound methods on employment situation and policy measures. We will stress on the followings: First, to carry out “Actual Effect of Policy” in depth and further fulfill the reemployment policy. By carrying out reemployment assistance, extending social security relationship and well disposing labor relationship, we try to greatly promote the reemployment, to reduce the increase in unemployment and to avoid big ups in unemployment rate. Second, to strengthen employment services and labor market administration. We will continue pushing forward the service of matching skills and posts in various areas to meet the demand from enterprises and to promote the employment of skilled laborers. We will carry out “Start and Improve Your Business” (SIYB) China program, propel the construction of start-up services system and promote the training for reemployment and start-up. Third, to greatly improve the employment environment for farmers to work in cities. We will continue clearing restrictions and unreasonable fees on farmers to work in cities, and thus strengthen and improve the employment services for farmer workers. We will greatly develop labor collaboration, actively develop organized labor export and carry out trainings for farmer workers in various levels and forms in order to improve their skills. We will launch the pilot project of unified urban and rural labor market to probe the possible way to establish it. Fourth, to constitute and carry out the policy and measures to speed up the construction of skilled workforce team and to raise it to a new stage. Fifth, to do well in research to improve the employment policy and to prepare for the long effective employment system.

2. Incorporation of Basic Subsistence Allowance for Laid-offs from State-owned Enterprises into Unemployment Insurance System and Unemployment Insurance Work

In the first half of the year, the incorporation of basic subsistence allowance for laid-offs from state-owned enterprises into unemployment insurance system was pushed forward step by step. Jilin and Helongjiang, which were the pilot projects for improving social security system, approved the incorporation of 0.75 million people and 1 million people respectively. By the end of June, 14 provinces had completed the incorporation all over the country. By then, laid-offs from state-owned enterprises were 1.17 million, 0.36 million less compared with that of the end of last year. While 0.65 million of them entered the reemployment services center, all of who had received the basic subsistence allowances in full and the social insurance remitted by the center.

By the end of June, the number of unemployment insured reached 104.96 million, 4.03 million of who received the unemployment premium. In the first half of the year, 5.57 million people over the country enjoyed unemployment insurance of various periods. From January to June, the revenue of unemployment insurance fund was 14.9 billion Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.5%; while expense of it was 9.1 billion Yuan.

In the second half of the year, we will actively and stably incorporate the basic subsistence allowances of laid-offs from state-owned enterprises into the unemployment insurance system, with the main theme of promoting the reemployment of laid-offs. By the end of the year, we will strive for realizing the incorporation basically in most areas over the country and solve the longstanding problems of workers being laid off from state-owned enterprises in general some time later. We will continue expanding the unemployment insurance coverage and further strengthen the levy and administration of the unemployment insurance funds. We will set up the insurance credit system to make sure a complete levy and to buildup the capability of unemployment insurance.

3. Old-age Insurance for Urban Enterprises Employees

Make sure that the achievements of payment will be consolidated. In the first half of the year, the country paid a total pension of 172 billion Yuan for retirees from enterprises and thus continued ensuring the payment on time and in full without reported local delays. On this base, some provinces and regions paid historical wage arrears. By the end of June, the number of provinces where existed no wage arrears reached 14. Meanwhile, the coverage of pensions continued expanding and fund revenue continued increasing greatly. By the end of June, the number of insured in basic old-age insurance was 168.68 million, 5.15 million more than that of the end of last year. Based on the fast and stable development of national economy, the total revenue of basic old-age insurance funds reached 221.5 billion Yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 24.8%. Hereinto, the revenue was 195.3 billion Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.9 billion Yuan; while total expense was 196.8 billion Yuan, a year-on-year up of 17.7%, maintaining the momentum that revenue is more than expense. New progress was achieved in socialized administration services. By the end of June, the number of retirees from enterprises who were in socialized administration was 35.34 million, 1.04 million more than that in the end of last year or 93.4% of total retirees from enterprises. Hereinto, the number of enterprise retirees who were in community administration was 24.12 million, or 63.8% of the total enterprise retirees. The construction of security system in various levels set out new pace. We launched the supervision on enterprise annuity fund market, issued special regulations like “Recognition of Qualification of Enterprise Pension Fund Management Institutions Tentative Procedures”, built experts committee for qualification recognition approval and began to accept applications from institutions.

Ensuing that basic pensions for enterprise retirees continue being paid on time and in full in the second half of the year, we will quicken the pace in improving enterprise pension insurance system and gradually advance the personal account in the areas which are of feasible conditions. We will regulate the policy in collecting insurance from self-employed individuals and professionals in order to further expand the coverage. We will learn the experiences from pilot project in Northeast to reform the way of paying pensions, connecting the treatment level more with the insured time and insured amount. We will gradually turn over management to high-level authorities and intensify efforts in relieving funds. Meanwhile, we will work out a plan for reforming the retirement pension system in government bodies and institutions.

4. Medical and Childbirth Insurance Work

The coverage of basic medical insurance continued expanding and the system ran smoothly. The revenue and expense of funds were basically balanced. By the end of June, the number of insured was 130.33 million, 6.29 million more than that of the end of last year. From January to June, the total revenue of funds was 63.5 billion Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%; expense was 48.8 billion Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.4%.

By the end of June, the number of childbirth insured over the country was 45.79 million, 1.95 million more than that of the end of last year. In the first half of the year, a total of 0.25 million person-time benefited from the childbirth insurance all over the country.

The next step, we will continue solving the capital source of medical insurance of retirees from bankrupted stated-owned enterprises; continue coordinating relevant departments in charge and supervise and urge central and provincial enterprises to participate in local medical insurance. We will continue encouraging more people in mixed ownership and non-public ownership organizations to participate in insurance program. We will intensify efforts in medical insurance administration services and funds levy and audit as well as in childbirth insurance.

5. Work-related Injury Insurance Work

In the first half of the year, the work-related injury insurance, with focus on high-risk enterprises, actively expanded its coverage. Combined with the implementation of “Regulations on Licenses for Safe Production”, we made the participation in work-related injury insurance by high-risk enterprises the required condition to get the license. We guided major coal-producing provinces to push more coal enterprises to participate in the insurance system, and carried out national propaganda and consultation activity in the theme of “Pay Attention on High-Risk Enterprise, Promote Farmer Worker to Be Insured”. By the end of June, the number of work-related injury insured was 73.02 million, 4.57 million more than that of the end of last year. In the first half of the year, a total of 0.38 million person-time enjoyed the treatment of work-related injury insurance.

In the second half of the year, we will give prominence to three key areas in order to continue expanding the coverage of work-related injury insurance: the key regions of large and middle cities, the key units of high-risk enterprises and the key groups of special employment disadvantaged groups like farmer workers. At the same time, we will constitute and implement the policy for government institutions to participate in the insurance program. We will improve the relevant standards and launch to draw “Labor Ability Assessment Standard”, and promote the pilot projects of work-related injury prevention and work-related injury rehabilitation.

6. Labor Relationship and Labor Security Legislation Work

Strengthen the execution of labor contract system. In order to solve the extruding problem that some entities of employers don’t sign the labor contract with the labor, we printed “Notice of Relevant Items on Establishing Labor Relationship” to prescribe the essential conditions and warrants of establishing the labor relationship and responsibilities of the illegal employer in order to protect the legal rights of laborers. Ministry of Labor and Social Security and other relevant departments jointly printed “Notice on Strengthening the Labor Contract Management of Farmer Worker in Construction Sector” in an effort to encourage farmer workers to sign the labor contract in the construction sector.

The separation of core business and auxiliary business of state-owned enterprises and the reformation of auxiliary business were pushed forward smoothly. In the first half of the year, Ministry of Labor and Social Security and other relevant departments jointly approved the reform schemes of 33 central state-owned enterprises, which had impact on 1,405 entities, 0.19 million employees. We supervised and urged enterprises to fulfill the reform schemes, dispose the enterprise employees and extend the social insurance relationship well. Meanwhile, we required local labor and social security departments to do a good job in signing and administrating labor contracts in reforming enterprises in efforts to protect employees’ rights.

We revised and issued “Regulations on Employment Administration of Citizens from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau”. It loosened the restrictions for citizens from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau to work in Mainland, canceled some special restrictions for them to work in Mainland, allowed graduates from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau to work in Mainland directly after graduation and made the admittance of technical workers the same with Mainland citizens. It also decentralized the administration work to labor and social security department of city level from provincial level. It regulated and clarified the approval procedures and the legal liability of related administrative person. The new regulation will take effect as of Oct. 1st, 2005.

The draft-out of “Employment Promotion Law (Draft)” is under the process orderly. Some relevant departments set up the specialized panel to actively carry out the research and draft of legislation.

In the second half of the year, we will further practice “Rules on Labor and Security Supervision” and enforce the supervision and law execution in labor and social security. We will stress on clearing the delay of farmer worker’s salary and continue spreading law knowledge in protecting the labor and security rights of farmer workers. We will carry out the special examination on the execution of “Regulation on Prohibition of Employing Children” in the nation wide. We will accelerate the draft of “Employment Promotion Law” and support the research and feasibility study on “Labor Contract Law (Draft)”. We will continue dealing well with the labor relationship for the surplus laborers in the process of separating auxiliary business in the reform of large and middle enterprises. We will further fulfill the minimum wage system and work on the long effective system of salary payment. We will continue promoting the construction of three-party coordination system in labor relationship. We will guide local areas to speed up the construction of labor arbitration entity and to enhance labor dispute arbitration entity’s capability of solving cases.