Management & Engineering Reflection on Construction Labor Employment System of China

Management & Engineering 17 (2014) 1838-5745
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Management & Engineering
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Reflection on Construction Labor Employment System of China
— Taking Shandong Province as a Case
Sulei LI 1, ∗, Qi LIU 2
1. Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, Shandong, P.R.China
2. Zibo Science and Technology Intelligence Institute, Zibo 255000, Shandong, P.R.China
KEYWORDS
Migrant workers,
Construction labor,
Management system,
Policy reference
ABSTRACT
With the development of the construction industry and a large number of rural surplus labors,
migrant workers have become the main force in the construction industry. Building
construction labor employment system has also become one of the foundations of sustainable
development. Based on the research of the status of the construction labor employment
market in Shandong Province, this paper attempts to explore problems existing in the
construction industry labor employment system. Using the achievements of the advanced
countries in construction labor and employment practice as reference, this paper provides the
reference for Shandong Province to establish the construction industry labor employment
management system.
© ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD
1 Introduction
The construction industry is one of the pillar industries of the national economy of our country, and it is also the typical labor
intensive industry. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that 6,443 labor subcontracting enterprises had been set up in
China in 2011, which take 8.9% of the total construction enterprises. There are 2,334,700 registered labors, which take 6.1% of the
total 38,524,700 construction labors. Among them, there are 256 labor subcontracting enterprises in the construction industry in
Shandong province, with 29,401 labors working there at the end of 2011. The labors cannot meet the need of the construction labor.
Service enterprise develops slowly and the proportion of number of enterprises is too low, which is contrary to the reasonable
Pyramid structure composed by total construction contract, professional contracting, and sub-contracting enterprises. It is shown in
Table 1.1.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected]
English edition copyright © ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD
DOI:10.5503/J.ME.2014.17.017
93
Table 1.1 Numbers and staff of labor subcontracting enterprises in the construction industry in Shandong Province
Region
Number of
enterprises
Average number
of labors
Labors at the end
of the year
Engineering and
technical personnel
Construction workers
on the scene
Whole country
6 443
2 334 665
2 446 940
197 226
1 824 219
Shandong
256
29 086
29 401
2 899
20 220
Data sources: National Bureau of Statistics, China Construction Industry Statistical Yearbook. 2012: 326
2 Current Situation and Problems of the Construction Labor of Shandong
Province
2.1 Lack in the supply of labor personnel
Migrant workers as a base force of the building industry are in lack these recent years. The reason is that after years of the process of
city development, most of the rural surplus labor force has been transferred to the cities, and not many are left there. The career
concept and values of the new generation of migrant workers have changed obviously; the hard construction industry is not their first
choice. The shortage in labor will naturally influence the sustained development of the construction industry.
2.2 The labor intensity of the labor employment personnel is high, income is low and the treatment is poor
The work at the construction site is famous for 3k (dirty, tiring, dangerous).The physical work is in high intensity, the working
environment is dangerous and dirty, and the living facilities are not perfect. Their income is low, too. A research about their income in
Shandong province is made, which can be seen clearly in Tables 2.1 and 2.2.
Table 2.1 Wages of some labors at construction site of Shandong Province
Building trades
Average work time (year)
Average wage (Yuan per day)
Scaffolder
6-10
200-350
Carpentry
6-10
200-300
Bricklayer
6-10
150-300
Steel workers
6-10
150-300
Concrete engineers
6-10
150-250
Welders
6-10
150-200
Decoration workers
6-10
200-300
Crane operators
6-10
200-300
Template engineers
6-10
250-300
Table 2.2 The production and operation situation of labor subcontracting enterprises in the construction industry in
Shandong province
Unit: Ten thousand Yuan
Region
The total output value of
construction industry
Business
income
Total profit
Labor remuneration of
employees
Whole country
13 381 471
12 974 101
300 348
6 981 537
Shandong
264 289
240 375
11 039
85 868
Data sources: National Bureau of Statistics, China Construction Industry Statistical Yearbook. 2012: 325
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2.3 Labor force structure in construction market is in disorder, and workers' skills are declining
There are nearly 30,000 (data of 2011) migrant workers in the construction industry in Shandong Province, and this is a huge and
loose group. Most of the migrant workers are lack in organization, their education is poor and they don’t have any safety and
operation training before they engage in construction. Their Occupational skill and overall quality cannot be improved in the long run
and also the new generation of migrant workers has decreased in recent years. The young are not experienced and the skills of the old
are getting poor as they get older. Fault phenomenon began to happen in the construction market labor, which will certainly influence
the health and sustain development in the construction market.
A survey of different construction types shows that the skills of most types of labors can be improved quickly, but after the age of 25,
their skill will be improved slowly. The skills of the concrete workers don’t slow down until they are 35 or even to 55. The
productivity of the scaffolders and Template engineers reached the top when they are 45, and after that it will fade as they age.
2.4 Labor is not standard; the social security system is not perfect
In many of the construction enterprises of Shandong province, migrant workers and construction companies or contractors do not
sign labor contracts. Due to lack of a sense of responsibility of labor service enterprises, many of the service company don’t sign a
contract with the team; neither do they sign a contract with the workers, thus migrant workers’ rights and interests are not guaranteed.
In addition, many migrant workers did not participate in the social insurance, the social security system related to the migrant
workers is not perfect, and the legitimate rights and interests cannot be guaranteed. It is shown in the following two aspects: (1) Total
construction contract, professional contracting and labor service enterprises avoid their own responsibility, do not give workers
industrial, medical and other social insurance. (2) When the construction workers legitimate rights and interests are infringed upon, it
is difficult to safeguard their rights.
3 Measures to Improve the Construction Labor of Shandong Province
Only when construction labor system adapts to the productivity level of the time period, can the construction industry be promoted to
develop healthily, otherwise construction industry will be hindered. By studying the successful experience and methods adopted by
the developed country, the paper puts forward the following countermeasures to Shandong province construction labor system as
follows.
3.1 Increasing the wages of the construction labor appropriately
Many studies show that to raise the wages of the construction industry practitioners is the main incentive mode in China's
construction industry. The level of the price of labor force can be simply represented by the wage level. Research shows that wages
and labor productivity are significantly correlated, and the correlation coefficient is 0.997. The construction industry labor
productivity each past year is shown in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1 The labor productivity of construction industry
Unit: Yuan/person
Region
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Whole country
23 427
25 741
28 853
32 444
37 640
40 319
43 951
Shandong
20 643
22 066
23 682
26 062
33 990
35 733
42 401
Data sources: National Bureau of Statistics, China Construction Industry Statistical Yearbook. 2012: 7
It can be seen from Table 3.1 that the labor productivity of construction enterprises of the whole country is generally lower than other
industries. In Japan, where the construction industry is relatively developed, the striking characteristics of the wage policy of the
construction industry labor personnel is that they pay attention to the age and length of service, that is, if the age of the labors is older,
and the service is longer, the wage is higher. To make up for the shortage of skilled workers in reality in construction industry, many
Japanese construction enterprises delay the retirement age of the technical workers from 60 to 65 to increase the service time of the
technical workers. As for America, construction industry is one of the major employment sectors, employment absorbed in the
construction industry accounted for about 5% of the total population of national employment. The average wage level of the
American construction workers is not only far higher than that of China and some developing countries, but also higher than the
wages of workers of other industries in America. Therefore, we should properly increase the wages and allowances of the
construction labor, and draw up the salary system that adapts to the construction personnel according to the special characteristic of
the construction industry. It can not only meet the normal needs to maintain the reproduction of labor, but can avoid the flow of the
construction industry practitioners.
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In addition, as to the labor wage payment, we should learn from the successful international experience and effective implementation.
Countries like Canada require that, through the construction contract, the general contractor should buy labor and material payment
guarantee, to ensure the payment of the labors. It is suggested that in our country regular payment system and wage reserve accounts
system of the labors (monthly) should be carried out. Resolutely, we should put an end to the contractor payment method, and carry
out the method that the project is paid directly to the labors. The project general contracting enterprises and professional
subcontracting enterprises pay for the project work to the labor subcontract company monthly and in full payment. The general
contracting enterprises should supervise the labor subcontract company to fully pay labors their wages in time, and bear joint and
several liabilities. Every time the construction unit pays for the project work, construction enterprises should deposit a certain
percentage of the amount into the savings account.
3.2 Improve the social security system; safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the labor service
personnel
Germany is the first country in the world that established modern social security system, and the national social security system is
gradually perfected in the background of rural labor forcing into the city. In Germany, as long as the migrant workers insured their
spouse and children, they need not pay for the insurance but they enjoy the treatment of medical insurance similarly, and it is
stipulated that the workers whose monthly income are below 610 Marks, their medical insurance fee shall be borne by the owner of
the company. In China, it should be required that construction employment enterprises must pay for social insurance for labor
employment personnel. Total construction contract and professional contracting enterprise directly hire workers, so they must sign a
written labor contract, and pay for industrial, medical or comprehensive insurance and other social insurance. As to the construction
labor staff social insurance, the construction service business and construction enterprises must pay for the insurance for them. The
insurance coverage ratio data for the enterprise workers should be a corporate reputation even registration assessment criteria.
3.3 Establish and improve the professional occupation qualification certification and authentication service
system
By improving the professional occupation qualification certification and authentication service system, it can fully enhance the
construction skills and safety awareness of the construction labor personnel, and the construction quality and the labor productivity of
Construction Engineering. Construction services operations personnel training and identification number in our country at present is
in a poor situation. The Department of Housing stipulates that if labor subcontracting enterprises want to get construction
qualification, one condition is that all the personnel must have certificates. According to statistics, there are only more than 800 skills
training schools and more than 700 identification mechanism all over the country at present. Among the building services staff that
have been trained and identified, only less than 10% have the certification.
The construction industry training system is perfect in Germany; the skill training of the German construction industry is planned and
organized by the German Architectural Association, and entrusted the training centers that have a training qualification to carry it out.
The enterprise, in accordance with the plan, sends trainees to the training center, and the training funds are provided by the
association to the training center. Building occupation skill training center is a non-profit organization. The training fee is paid by the
German construction enterprises to the SOKA yearly, the amount is 1.2% of the total business sales, and the SOKA will pay the
training organization. The workers at the construction site in our country are migrant workers who have never been trained, which is
different from Germany.
Considering from the perspective of the construction industry in China, huge numbers of construction workers need training. The
state financial and local financial appropriation cannot meet the need of the training and identification, so the support of the
construction industry enterprises is needed. It is suggested that construction enterprises can add projects to the project cost to obtain
fee of training construction services, or the employee education expenses can be appropriated some to be used in the training and
identification of the workers who work at the scene. In this way, the problem of shortage in training and identification fee can be
solved.
Pre job training, professional and technical training system should be established to enhance the quality and skills of construction
labors.
4 Conclusion
The construction industry has strong employment absorption on liberation of our country's social and economic development in
agriculture surplus labor force. The construction labors in the construction industry, as the basic level labor force, are getting more
and more important.
Based on the current situation of the construction labor of Shandong Province, the paper analyzes the problems of the construction
labor policies of our country, and puts forward effective solutions and strategies for the healthy and sustainable development of the
labor system in construction industry.
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Author’s Address:
LI Sulei, Institute of Architecture and Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, 255049
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 13864370122
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