□ Our reporter Wen Yuanzhen
Recently, a teacher in Jiangxi Vocational College of New Energy Science and Technology has deducted huge internship remuneration from students, which has aroused widespread concern. Subsequently, the Joint Investigation Team of Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province issued a briefing saying that after a preliminary investigation by the High-tech Branch of Xinyu City Public Security Bureau, it was found that Yan Moumou and others were suspected of accepting bribes by non-state workers, and now they have filed a case for investigation and taken criminal compulsory measures against Yan Moumou and others. At present, the case is under further investigation.
An interview with the reporter of "Rule of Law Daily" learned that such phenomena as vocational college students being brought into factories by teachers as assembly line workers and internship allowances being maliciously defaulted by enterprises have occurred from time to time. The reason is that most interns have not left the campus and cannot sign labor contracts, which cannot be directly linked to the status of workers protected by labor law. Therefore, problems such as illegal fees for internship training, students’ injuries during internship, and ineffective protection of legitimate rights and interests occur from time to time, especially the chaos in internship in vocational colleges.
Experts interviewed by reporters believe that some vocational colleges and enterprises do not hesitate to harm the legitimate rights and interests of students in pursuit of interests. The reason why this kind of chaos can’t be stopped is that the design of safeguard mechanism and rights protection mechanism in existing normative documents is relatively simple and not feasible. For example, what responsibilities vocational colleges and internship units need to bear after violating laws and regulations, and whether these responsibilities can effectively deter the units, etc., all need to be further solved.
School-enterprise cooperation is controversial.
Many vocational college students have had unforgettable internship experiences — — The internship salary is far below the normal level, and even you can’t get paid.
Xiao Li, a junior in a vocational college in Jiangxi, is currently working as an intern in a processing factory in Nanchang, with an average internship salary of 15 yuan per hour. "As long as it is a student, the salary is basically the lowest. Although the work content is similar, there is a big income gap between us and the workers working in the same group. " Xiao Li said.
At the beginning of July this year, Xiaolin of a vocational college in Shandong went to a hotel for an internship according to the requirements of the school. After two days of training, I took up my post in the housekeeping department. I work from 7: 50 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. every day, with half an hour for lunch. Because of the excessive intensity of work, after working for a week, her back pain was "unbearable". The examination results of the hospital showed irreversible "lumbar degenerative diseases".
"Our interns can’t be dismissed. If they are dismissed, they will be recorded in the file by the school and affect graduation." Kobayashi said that she had to choose her own internship later, but when she went to the human resources department to go through the resignation procedures, she originally said that she could settle her salary for one week, but she didn’t get it at the end. "At least five people didn’t get the internship salary like me."
It is understood that many students are sent to other places for internships, often far from the school, and the working hours and intensity are the same as those of front-line workers. Although it is called "paid internship", the salary is often very low, which is equivalent to the employer reducing the cost of employing people in disguise.
"At that time, we went with 50 students and were sent to the front line to do some threading, punching and packaging work every day. In order to get the diploma smoothly, I have to stay there and work hard. " Xiaolin said.
The incident of Jiangxi New Energy Science and Technology Vocational College also proved this point. According to public reports, the college is currently divided into two parts: secondary school and junior college. Among them, there is compulsory internship in secondary schools, and no graduation certificate will be issued unless you go to a designated unit for internship. Although the college also arranges internship units, students can choose to practice independently. In the junior year, the school will arrange internship units for students of different majors, and the internship locations are all over the country, but most of the internship units are processing factories, and the internship salary is about 2,800 yuan a month. If students find their own factories, the internship salary will basically be one or two thousand yuan higher.
In addition, the reporter found that in 2022, the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education issued a "Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education announced the third batch of six typical cases of teachers violating teachers’ morality and style". It was mentioned in the above cases that in December 2021, five counselors of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, Liu Moumou, Lai Moumou, Qi Moumou, Li Moumou and Zhang Moumou, cooperated with off-campus training institutions to organize five classes of photovoltaic power generation college without reporting to their colleges.
Similar school-enterprise cooperation has made many students miserable. Previously, many students from a college in Sichuan reported that the school had illegal charging behavior. According to students’ feedback, during the four-year study period, the school charged students many times in violation of regulations. In addition to tuition fees, the school cooperated with enterprises to charge each student an extra 2,700 yuan for skills training, and after four years, an extra 10,800 yuan was paid, and more than 700,000 yuan was charged for computer majors alone. What’s more, between 2016 and 2018, the school actually informed students to pay their own fees to the enterprise, otherwise they would not be given credits or even issued diplomas.
It is difficult to defend rights when casualties occur.
On November 10th this year, Li Hao (a pseudonym), a junior in Pingdingshan, Henan Province, died suddenly when he returned to the off-campus rental house to rest after nearly 9 hours of live broadcast of the company’s overnight game. The "Death Certificate" issued by the police shows that Li Hao died abnormally and died because of "sudden death".
"The school asked them to have a six-month internship. When they applied for a job online, they found this live game company." Li Hao’s father said that the agreement signed between the company and the child required that the live broadcast duration should not be less than 240 hours per month. The child was originally broadcast live during the day, but after November 5, he began to broadcast live at night, and he had broadcast live for five consecutive nights before his sudden death.
In this regard, the company involved, Henan Qinyi Culture Media Co., Ltd., said that the company signed the "Anchor and Guild Cooperation Agreement" with Li Hao, and there was no employment relationship or internship relationship between the two parties. Li Hao died in his rented house after finishing his work and had nothing to do with the company.
Is the company involved responsible for Li Hao’s death?
"Although the death result of Li Hao is not in the company, if the cause of death is related to continuous overnight work, the game company should also bear some responsibility for the death result." Wu Mengkai, a lawyer of Guangdong Hetuo Law Firm, said that as a responsible enterprise, it should assume the responsibilities and obligations for interns and protect their legitimate rights and interests. If the company signs a cooperation agreement with the interns, it should also clarify the rights and obligations of both parties to ensure that the cooperation is based on fairness, justice and mutual benefit.
Wu Mengkai reminded that interns generally do not enjoy the treatment of work-related injuries, and the risks of internship work are borne by interns themselves. Therefore, interns should agree with the internship unit on how to deal with casualties during the internship period, so as not to protect their legitimate rights and interests afterwards. When signing the agreement, you can negotiate for accidental injury insurance, or agree with the internship unit that in case of casualty, the internship unit will pay the casualty treatment according to the standard of industrial injury insurance treatment, so as to avoid personal rights and interests being damaged due to the lack of legal basis.
"We can’t ignore the problems and dilemmas in the internship process, and we can’t tolerate the deprivation of interns’ rights by employers." The professor scope of capital university of economics and business Institute of Labor Economics appealed that enterprises should be guided to establish a correct overtime culture and advocate reasonable working hours and healthy working methods.
The supervision mechanism needs to be improved urgently.
As early as April 2016, the Ministry of Education and other five departments issued the Regulations on the Management of Students’ Internship in Vocational Schools. In January 2022, the Ministry of Education and other eight departments jointly issued the newly revised Regulations on the Management of Students’ Internship in Vocational Schools, aiming at the problems of compulsory internship, simple repetitive work unrelated to professional study, infringement of students’ legitimate rights and interests, and further delineating the "red line".
However, why is the relevant chaos still difficult to eliminate?
In Wu Mengkai’s view, some schools, labor service companies and employers collude with each other and evade supervision. However, due to interns’ weak position, low bargaining power, weak awareness of rights protection and more concerns, some schools, intermediaries and other relevant personnel will be unscrupulous, so that many interns lose the courage to say "no".
"In reality, some complaints can’t get timely response from relevant departments, interns have to report on social platforms, and it is easy to give up reporting because of intimidation and retaliation." Wu Mengkai suggested that it is necessary not only to vigorously unblock the channels for interns to complain and report, but also to tighten the responsibility of the regulatory authorities and seriously blame the relevant departments and personnel such as inaction and slowness.
According to the introduction of the scope, the infringement of interns’ rights and interests by internship units is concentrated in three aspects: first, the right to labor remuneration, especially for interns in vocational colleges, whose wages are usually lower than the market level; Second, the right to rest, they are often asked to work long hours; The third is the right to occupational safety and health. Some internship units have poor working conditions and have not provided enough training and protection for interns, which may cause them to suffer occupational injuries.
Scope told reporters that there was a case of the Supreme People’s Court guiding that employment-oriented interns could form labor relations with internship units. However, as stipulated in Article 12 of the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Implementation of the Labor Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued by the former Ministry of Labor in August 1995, students who use their spare time to work and study are not regarded as employment, and labor relations have not been established, so they may not sign labor contracts. In practice, interns are excluded from the labor law, and in most cases, they will not be considered as constituting labor relations with employers.
"There is no essential difference between the internship interns and the laborers, and they are also subordinate laborers. However, it is unfair that they cannot enjoy all kinds of rights and interests of laborers because the subjects do not meet the standards for the determination of labor relations." Wu Mengkai said.
If a student’s internship salary is deducted, can it be recovered? Wu Mengkai believes that in view of the phenomenon that students’ internship wages are deducted, students should collect evidence at the first time and save evidence that can prove the employment relationship, including punching records, salary flow, working hours, etc., and ask the other party to pay in time according to the employment remuneration. At the same time, you can also complain and report to the local labor inspection agency and ask the relevant departments to assist in the investigation. If the consultation fails, they shall safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through legal channels.
The scope calls for enterprises to pay attention to legal compliance when hiring interns. Although the labor law is not applicable to interns, they should still pay attention to the universality of basic labor standards, such as working hours, wages and occupational safety and health protection, which should be consistent with ordinary workers and pay attention to the training of interns. At the same time, interns should try their best to choose regular internship units and pay attention to their legitimate rights and interests, such as asking for a written agreement to clarify the rights and obligations of both parties, and asking for accident insurance or employer liability insurance.
The scope holds that there are still imperfect systems, and enterprises need to improve the corresponding supervision mechanism to participate in vocational education, and urge them to implement the corresponding responsibilities such as training and education. Enterprises’ participation in vocational education should focus on education, even if they practice in enterprises, it is carried out under the whole system of talent training. At the same time, the "blacklist" of vocational colleges and internship units can also be made public to the public, and the relevant complaints and reports of vocational colleges can be included in the scope of evaluation and audit, and the internship units can be included in the social responsibility evaluation system.
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