Public hospital cleaning workers strike wages: 5 months of salary delay, outsourcing logistics responsibility can not disappear with the contract

On September 16, several cleaning workers in the Future Road Hospital district of the First People's Hospital in Pyeongchang City stopped work and collectively pleaded for a delayed salary. A live video released by China's overseas collective protest recording project "Yesterday" showed that several workers in cleaning clothes gathered in the hospital area to express their demands.

The incident occurred in a large public hospital, rather than a small private enterprise that was difficult to operate. The first people's hospital in Pyeongchang City is still operating normally, and since this year the hospital website and government procurement platform has been continuously releasing outsourcing projects such as equipment maintenance, sewage treatment, security, maintenance. Hospital logistics service itself depends heavily on the contractor system, so the maintenance worker's salary must first answer a basic question: who is the actual employer of these workers, who is responsible for paying, whether the costs between hospitals and outsourcing companies are settled correctly.

Five months without salary, workers choose to stop working

The video released by the “Yesterday” project on September 17 said that future home cleaners were in debt for five months because of their wages, and the day before they went on a collective strike to pay for their wages. The video on the scene recorded how workers were staying in the school district, but at the moment public information has not shown how many workers were involved, how much the total amount was in debt, and which property or labor company carried out the maintenance business specifically.

For hospital care workers with lower incomes, not receiving wages for five consecutive months means that life risks are transferred directly to workers. Medical institutions can continue to operate, in addition to doctors nurses, also rely on logistical positions such as cleaning, killing, transportation, repair and security. Careers daily enter hospital areas, public areas and toilets to carry out cleaning tasks, but are often at the end of the hospital work chain, wages, social insurance and contract information is also the most opaque.

The public procurement of hospitals continues, but the chain of liability for default has not yet been disclosed

The public information of the first people's hospital in Pyeongchang City shows that there are still a number of logistics and maintenance procurements in the future road district this year.In June, the hospital procurement for the district's sewage cleanup and sewage sewage network;In August-September, competitive consultations were held on purification units and new wind systems.The hospital also continued to procure services such as sewage treatment station operation maintenance.

These projects are not necessarily carried out by the same contractor as the cleaning wages, but they clearly show that a large number of non-medical in the future hospital area operate through the procurement and outsourcing system. In such a management model, when there is a wage wage, responsibility cannot be cut off only by the phrase "Workers are not hospital official employees".

What really needs to be disclosed is: who is the buyer of the cleaning contract and the medium-sized company, the amount of the contract, whether the hospital has paid to the contractor in accordance with the contract, whether the contractor is indebted to labor wages, whether there is a secondary subcontract, and with which entity the worker has signed labor contracts. If the hospital has paid sufficient amount of service fees, then the contractor needs to explain the wage direction; if the hospital is long-term indebted to the outsourcing service fees, the worker's liability should also be explained as a result.

*Outsourcing is not a vacuum zone of labor liability

The Chinese labor law and labor contract system clearly requires employers to pay labor remuneration in a timely amount.In reality, a large number of positions such as cleaning, security, care assistance and other positions use the form of property outsourcing, labor outsourcing or labor dispatch, workers often can only see the direct management of their own group head or property company, but cannot control the settlement of the contract between hospitals and contractors.

This structure is most likely to come down to the responsibility layer: hospitals say wages should be paid by the real estate company, real estate companies say the costs of the A-party are not settled, and the project manager pushes the responsibility to the lower level labor force, and finally there are really no wages to pay for the first-line workers.

Public medical institutions use financial funds, medical insurance funds and public resources to operate, and even if logistics services are outsourced according to law, they should still set wage payments, labor rights and breach supervision terms in procurement contracts, and check the actual performance.

* Hospitals are still expanding and procurement this year, but grassroots workers stop working for wages

Open government procurement information shows that the first people's hospital in the city of Pyeongchang Future Road Hospital district also plans to build a rehabilitation center, the project is to add 500 beds; at the same time, the hospital continues to purchase equipment and logistics maintenance services this year.

This does not directly prove that the hospital is the subject of non-payment, but it is sufficient to explain that the investigation can not only stop in the dispute between the workers and a property company. As a party to the place of service and the outsourcing contract, the hospital has at least knowledge of the contractual relationship, the settlement progress and the entry of personnel information, and should be able to indicate who provides maintenance services for the hospital area and who should pay the five-month salary.

The most needed cases of wage failure are contracts and payment records

Following this strike to really clarify the responsibility, the key materials are not complicated:

• Current cleaning service contracts and medium-sized subjects;
• payment and settlement records of hospitals to cleaning contractors;
• labor contracts, salary tables and social insurance payments of cleaning workers;
• whether there is a re-subscription, transfer of contracts or labor dispatch;
• when the five-month wage deficit begins, how many people and how much amount is involved.

As long as these documents are disclosed, the chain of responsibility is not difficult to judge.The most unacceptable result is that workers are asked to return to their jobs after the strike, and who causes the loss of pay continues to be a blurred account.

The clean environment of the hospital isined by these workers every day. A public health institution cannot demand that the hospital remain in order while tolerating that the most basic level of care workers are not remunerated for months in a row. Outsourcing can change the contractual relationship, but should not be a tool to remove the worker’s wage liability.