Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 1 (Xinhua Viewpoint) Reporter

Recently, the Central Meteorological Observatory has issued yellow warnings for high temperatures for many consecutive days, and the highest temperatures in many places have broken historical extremes. "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters found that since the beginning of this year, five provinces and cities, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Tianjin, have successively adjusted the standards for high temperature allowances, among which Zhejiang and Jiangxi have also simplified the calculation and payment methods. Special inspections by local labor inspection departments this year found that some workers who work in high temperatures still did not receive high temperature allowances.

Many places adjusted high temperature allowance policies, raised standards, and simplified calculation and payment

The Management Measures for Heatstroke Prevention and Cooling Measures issued in 2012 stipulate that if an employer arranges workers to engage in outdoor work in high temperature weather above 35¡æ and fails to take effective measures to reduce the temperature of the workplace to below 33¡æ, the employer shall pay high temperature allowances to the workers and include them in the total salary. The standard for high temperature allowances shall be formulated by the provincial human resources and social security administrative department in conjunction with relevant departments, and shall be adjusted in a timely manner according to the social and economic development situation.

Since the beginning of this year, five provinces and cities, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Sichuan and Tianjin, have successively adjusted the standards of high temperature allowances, making it the year with the most provinces adjusting after 2013. The reporter found that since the issuance of the Management Measures for Heatstroke Prevention and Cooling Measures, at least 22 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have adjusted the standards of high temperature allowances.

After the adjustment this year, the standard of high temperature allowances for high temperature workers in Jiangsu and outdoor workers in Zhejiang enterprises is 300 yuan per person per month, and Jiangxi has set a baseline of no less than 300 yuan for high temperature workers, jointly refreshing the highest standard of 240 yuan per person per month previously maintained by Shanxi and Jiangxi. The standard of high temperature allowances in Sichuan Province has also been raised from 8 to 12 yuan per person per day to 10 to 18 yuan per person per day. Tianjin has made dynamic adjustments based on the average salary of employees in the city last year, and the standard has been raised from 29 yuan per person per day to 31 yuan per person per day.

Some provinces have explored simplified calculation and payment methods. For a long time, the policies for the issuance of high temperature allowances in various places have been different. In terms of calculation methods, some are calculated monthly, some are calculated daily or even hourly; in terms of work positions, some also distinguish between outdoor work, indoor high temperature work, and indoor non-high temperature work.

This year, Zhejiang Province simplified the previous three standards for high temperature work, non-high temperature work, and general staff in enterprises into two categories: outdoor and indoor staff of enterprises. Indoor staff can also receive a high temperature allowance of 200 yuan per person per month. Jiangxi allows employers to choose the calculation method of high temperature allowances on their own, which can be calculated monthly or daily. For part-time employment, it also stipulates a calculation standard of no less than 3 yuan per hour.

Special inspections found that some workers did not receive high temperature allowances, and some were worried about "losing their jobs" if they reported

It is understood that in recent years, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has organized special inspections in China every summer on the compliance of employers with labor, employment and social insurance laws and regulations, and high temperature allowances are one of the inspection focuses. This year's special inspection is in progress.

By the end of July, Xi'an City had inspected 1,142 employers of all types, involving 30,500 workers in high-temperature operations, of which 796 employers paid high-temperature allowances to 27,000 workers, and 11.5% of the workers did not receive the high-temperature allowances on time; the Nanjing Labor Supervision Department has coordinated and handled 154 cases through high-temperature law enforcement inspections, helping more than 500 workers solve practical problems.

A relevant person in charge of the Dongguan Human Resources Bureau of Guangdong Province said that this year's special inspection is still ongoing. Last year, 4,017 employers were inspected, and 22 of them did not pay high-temperature allowances according to law, and the number of illegal enterprises has been greatly reduced.

The reporter searched the first-instance cases involving disputes over the payment of high-temperature allowances on the China Judgment Documents Online and found that there were 2,219 cases in 2016 and 1,937 cases in 2017. By the end of July this year, more than 200 cases could be retrieved.

The reporter found that when the rights and interests of high temperature allowances were damaged, some workers chose to remain silent for fear of offending the company and losing their jobs. Pan Yanjun, deputy secretary of the Party branch of the Huake Optoelectronic Information Building Project Department of China Construction Third Engineering Bureau in Wuhan, said that there were more than 400 workers on the project site. After she found that a labor service company did not pay high temperature allowances in time, she took the initiative to contact more than a dozen workers involved. As a result, the workers were "worried about offending the labor service company for a little money" and were unwilling to testify.

On the one hand, workers have concerns, and on the other hand, the cost of violations for enterprises is relatively low. At present, Guangdong, Shandong and other places have issued labor protection measures for high temperature weather, which clearly stipulate that the failure to pay high temperature allowances to workers shall be ordered to be corrected by the human resources and social security departments at or above the county level. If the correction is not made within the time limit, a fine of more than 2,000 yuan but less than 20,000 yuan shall be imposed.

According to regulations, even if investigated and punished by the labor inspection department, the enterprise can be exempted from fines as long as it reissues them in time. Recently, the Qingdao Municipal Labor Supervision Department investigated and dealt with such a case. An enterprise did not pay a total of 17,780 yuan in June high temperature allowances to 127 employees. However, according to regulations, it can only issue a "Labor Security Supervision Recommendation" to order the enterprise to make up the payment.

Refusing to pay high temperature allowances is arrears of wages. Some places clearly stipulate that enterprises bear the burden of proof when disputes arise.

It is understood that in the past, the winning rate of many cases involving high temperature allowances was low. The reason is that the burden of proof is unclear. It is not easy for workers to prove that their working environment meets the standards for the payment of high temperature allowances.

At present, some places have clarified the burden of proof for disputes over the payment of high temperature allowances to protect the rights and interests of workers. Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places stipulate that employers bear the burden of proof for workers' work in high temperature weather and the payment of high temperature allowances.

A case published by the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Justice in May this year showed that Li, the leader of the injection molding department of a craft products factory in Dongguan, had a dispute with the factory because the factory did not pay high temperature allowances and was dismissed without reason. The court held that although the company installed ventilation and cooling equipment such as exhaust fans and air coolers, it failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the room temperature of Li's workplace was lowered to below 33¡ãC from June to October, and failed to prove that it had paid Li a high temperature allowance. It was eventually sentenced to pay a high temperature allowance and more than 40,000 yuan in compensation for illegal termination of the labor relationship.

Several grassroots labor inspection department staff members introduced that compared with the wages and social security of migrant workers, the amount of high temperature allowance is relatively small and is usually not the focus of law enforcement inspections. In some places, the investigation and punishment of enterprises that refuse to pay high temperature allowances mainly rely on employee reports and complaints, and there is even a phenomenon of "the people do not report, the officials do not investigate."

Wang Jun, a lawyer at Shanxi Longcheng Law Firm, said that high temperature allowances are part of labor remuneration, not a "welfare" that can be paid or not. Failure to pay high temperature allowances in accordance with regulations is equivalent to wage arrears. Relevant departments should strictly investigate the behavior of underpaying or refusing to pay high temperature allowances. (Reporters Liang Xiaofei, Huang Haoyuan, Xu Haibo, Wang Feihang)

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