Employees inquiring about colleagues' salaries are fired? The "secret wage system" should not become a tool to infringe on the rights and interests of workers

Original title: Employees inquire about colleagues' wages are dismissed, pay slips are dismissed, and enterprises use "wage secrecy" to secretly apply "unequal pay for equal work"... "Secret salary system" should not become a tool to infringe on the rights and interests of workers

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Enterprises implement a salary confidentiality system, strengthen salary incentives, and reduce the turnover rate, but it will also make it difficult for some workers to enjoy equal pay for equal work. Regarding the practice of some enterprises dismissing workers on the grounds that employees discuss wages and violate the company's secret salary regulations, lawyers pointed out that the secret salary system cannot be abused, let alone become a tool to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of employees.

Recently, a well-known technology and communication company issued an employee memorandum announcing that employees have the right to discuss working conditions and compensation. For a time, the topic of "whether enterprises should implement a salary confidentiality system" has once again attracted attention.

As a management method introduced from abroad, the remuneration confidentiality system has become an explicit provision of many companies in mainland China. From the perspective of enterprises, the sensitive topic of "how much income" is isolated among employees will help strengthen salary incentives, reduce personnel instability caused by comparison, and reduce labor costs. However, from the perspective of workers, the prohibition of discussing wages may infringe on their right to equal pay for equal work and their right to know about labor remuneration.

The interviewed lawyer said that the enterprise secret salary system cannot be abused, let alone cross the legal red line and become a tool to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of workers.

The internal system of the enterprise, laws and regulations are not limited

"It's a rule from entry to departure." Speaking of salary confidentiality, Liu Nan, who once worked for an Internet company in Beijing, said.

In 2018, Liu Nan entered the company through social recruitment to work in big data. According to his recollection, in labor contracts, employee handbooks and new employee training meetings, "it is forbidden to disclose their own salaries and prohibit inquiries about the salaries of colleagues" are important contents.

In the more than two years of working in the company, Liu Nan has hardly listened to her colleagues discuss salary-related topics. During this period, he once submitted an application for a salary increase, and the specific increase was determined by him after consulting with the leader and the head of the human resources department.

Meng Jiajie, who is in Chengdu, works as a human resources worker in a large real estate company. According to her, every time a new employee is hired, the hr department will ask them to read the company rules and sign them, including the salary confidentiality provisions. "As far as I know, this is a common requirement in the real estate industry." Meng Jiajie said.

The reporter's investigation found that the Internet, real estate, finance and foreign-funded enterprises that first introduced this system generally require employees not to discuss wage income through signing agreements, oral notices and other forms.

In 2020, Liu Nan applied to the company for studying abroad, and in the process of handling the procedures, the human resources department asked him to sign an agreement containing clauses such as "after leaving the company, he still cannot discuss salary with the relevant personnel of the company".

Tang Langjun, a lawyer at Sichuan Juntang Law Firm, said that the remuneration confidentiality system belongs to the internal rules of the employer, and each enterprise can be determined according to its own specific situation, but it should comply with the procedures for formulating rules and regulations and publicizing them, and its content must not conflict with laws and regulations. At present, the state's laws and regulations do not stipulate the confidentiality of remuneration, nor do they prohibit enterprises from adopting the secret salary system.

Enhanced compensation incentives, but may be contrary to equal pay for equal work

As a controversial initiative in human resource management, there has been more and more research on salary confidentiality systems in recent years. Zhang Zhengtang, a professor in the Department of Human Resource Management at Nanjing University Business School, found that the implementation of salary confidentiality allows enterprises to provide largely different salaries according to the performance of employees, improve the role of salary incentives, and also avoid internal conflicts due to income gaps.

This is one of the main reasons why many companies implement a salary confidentiality system. Meng Jiajie took the accounting position employees of the company as an example, although they are engaged in accounting work, but due to the different specific real estate projects, the scale and complexity of the accounting are different, and the income of employees will vary significantly.

In a number of studies on related topics, researchers have mentioned that it is reasonable to use the salary confidentiality system for the core technical positions of enterprises and positions that are difficult to quantify and assess.

"This not only distributes according to work, but also prevents employees from making unreasonable comparisons of wages, thereby reducing attrition." Meng Jiajie added that at present, more and more post-90s and post-00s are entering the workplace, and in their view, income confidentiality is also a practice of respecting privacy.

However, the negative effects of the remuneration confidentiality system cannot be ignored. Zhang Zhengtang's research found that this system may reduce employees' sense of fairness and trust in enterprises.

Zeng Jiakui, a lawyer at Hunan Tiandiren Law Firm, found that some enterprises did violate the provisions of the Labor Law by using the salary confidentiality system, making it difficult for some workers engaged in basic and regular positions to enjoy equal pay for equal work.

In fact, the foreign salary confidentiality system was the earliest practice of employers negotiating salaries with employees one by one in order to reduce labor costs.

Liu Nan revealed that the first company he joined after graduating from graduate school required candidates to fill in the expected salary during the recruitment written test. After working for a while, a colleague who joined Liu Nan as a fresh graduate and was engaged in the same position inadvertently learned that his salary was nearly 1500 yuan less than Liu Nan's, because his expected salary was lower. "The company saved a sum of money with the 'convenience' of salary confidentiality." Liu Nan said.

A number of interviewees told reporters that in the Internet, finance and other fast-growing industries, the phenomenon of salary inversion is more common. "Newcomers are young and have no position, but work overtime and may be paid more than 'old people'." A foreign bank employee believes that this is also one of the reasons why many enterprises implement a salary confidentiality system.

Termination if violated? "Family rules" cannot be greater than "national law"

In April 2021, a second-instance judgment was pronounced in a labor dispute case involving salary confidentiality. A technology company in Beijing terminated its labor contract with an employee Zhao on the grounds that he had voluntarily disclosed his personal salary to others and violated the company's salary confidentiality regulations. Zhao believed that the company had terminated the labor relationship illegally, and his claim was eventually supported by the court.

Meng Jiajie admitted that her company had dissuaded an employee. "In addition to his unsatisfactory performance, persuading this employee to inquire about his colleagues' salaries some time ago was also a major reason for the company to make this decision."

The reporter's search found that it occurred from time to time that employees were terminated from labor contracts because of discussing wages. In judicial practice, this act was finally ruled to be an illegal termination of the labor contract.

In Tang Langjun's view, a major reason for the employer's loss of the lawsuit was that the employee's behavior of inquiring or discussing wages did not meet the conditions stipulated in Article 39 of the Labor Contract Law that "the employer may terminate the labor contract" and "the employee seriously violated the rules and regulations of the employer". "Discussing wages is generally difficult to cause so-called 'serious consequences' for enterprises."

Some courts also found that the remuneration confidentiality system violated the principle of equal pay for equal work stipulated in the Labor Law, and therefore ruled that the employee won the lawsuit.

The Xishan District People's Court of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, ruled in a 2013 case on the grounds that, in the case of salary confidentiality, workers lack the right to know, their rights and interests in equal pay for equal work cannot be relied upon, and there is no fairness for some basic and regular positions, or for workers in the same type of work.

Zeng Jiakui said that in order to implement the salary confidentiality system, enterprises must follow the principles of rationality, scientificity and completeness on the basis of legality. At the same time, in order to give play to the role of the workers' congress, such rules and regulations or major matters that directly involve the vital interests of workers must be submitted to the workers' congress for deliberation and disclosed to the employees.

The Xishan District People's Court held that an open remuneration system can make internal communication more effective, reduce misinformation, and enhance trust. As a system, the salary hierarchy, job gaps and operating procedures should also be based on openness. (Reporter Luo Xiaoxiao)