All kinds of in-app purchases Do employees have to pay for their own products out of their own pockets?

　　Many employees are encouraged or even asked to buy all kinds of products and services of the company, and many people in the workplace are no strangers to this method.

Recently, an employee of an automobile company posted on social media, which brought related topics to attention again. The employee said that almost 80 percent of the company's employees had explicitly hinted that they would have to buy their own cars if they wanted to keep their jobs and get promoted. As a technician, he not only bought two cars himself, but also recommended relatives and friends to buy them, but he was still laid off in the end.

　Some enterprises encourage or even explicitly order employees to buy the products and services of their own enterprises, and some of them do not know the requirements of the order, but through the apportionment of performance, they actually force employees to buy, and even accept corresponding penalties if they fail to complete their performance.

Benefits, Employee Rates, Assessments, Explicit Purchases...... There are all kinds of in-house purchases, do employees have to pay for their own products out of their own pockets?

Employees have mixed reviews for all kinds of in-house purchases

　　At present, the temperature is low, and Ms. Rao, who works in a large private enterprise, brought several large bags of new clothes and groceries home from the unit, "The unit will coordinate different brands within the unit to participate in the internal purchase, and basically sell them at cost price, just to buy some clothes for the change of season, which is very cost-effective." For such internal purchases, Ms. Rao said that she and her colleagues have done a good job, "basically bought them for everyone in the family, and wearing them out is also a good promotion for the corporate brand."

　　Compared to Ms. Rao's experience, some in-app purchases may not be so easy for employees. Li Wei used to be a senior partner in a corporate management consulting firm and is now a practicing lawyer at Shanghai Lauda Law Firm. He summed up the various internal purchase situations he has encountered over the years: "Generally, it can be divided into four types: taking the initiative to give away as employee benefits, not taking the initiative to give away, but giving preferential prices, guiding employees to take the initiative to buy, although the order is not clear, but apportioning the performance, in fact, eventually forcing employees to buy, and explicitly purchasing." ”

　　Li Chun and Chen Shuang both worked in a car company, and both bought new energy vehicles from the company during their work. Li Chun said that when he first bought a car, he was attracted by internal discounts: "Employees have a discount of 10,000 yuan for internal purchases. She said that she happened to have this need at that time, and she quickly placed an order. Chen Shuang said that although the decision on whether to buy is in the hands of employees, the company will directly send out discounts for employees and recommend everyone to buy, and she herself "has no way not to buy because she is a manager". In interviews, she said that this behavior has become a regular practice in the industry.

　　The experience of being apportioned, Sun Siwen, who used to do sales, had an experience. "Our company formulates health care product sales tasks every schedule, and we have to complete them every day. ”

　　In the case of explicit purchases, Li Wei gave an example: "A health care product company clearly requires employees to purchase the company's products, although there are certain discounts, but at the same time there are quantity requirements, and if they are not completed, the performance will be deducted. ”

Why businesses choose in-app purchases

　　Encouraging employees to buy their own goods and services is nothing new. For enterprises, what kind of effect do they expect to achieve through in-app purchases?

　　"Businesses that adopt in-house purchases and distribute benefits are generally consumer-oriented industries. Xu Bei, head of human resources in the Asia-Pacific region of Polaris Power Vehicle Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that under the premise of voluntary purchase, "the advantages of this method will definitely outweigh the disadvantages, and it will enhance the sense of belonging and pride of employees."

　　Xu Bei believes that there are two reasons to promote enterprises, "one is corporate culture and value promotion. The second is to enrich employee welfare programs while stimulating internal sales." She said that making employees users of the company's products or services is conducive to enhancing employee engagement, and can also promote employees to become product promoters, and at the same time, through trials, product improvement ideas can be collected and proposed more quickly. She also added that companies also need to find a way to charge taxes reasonably and avoid the tax risks caused by this.

　　All kinds of internal purchase behaviors are not only the consideration of the company's employee welfare, but also the consideration of actually reducing part of the labor cost. Li Wei analyzed, "If the main pursuit of enterprises to deal with their own products or services for employees is to provide employees with benefits or meet the needs of employees, and achieve other goals by the way, then the benefits can generally be reaped more than the disadvantages." ”

　　"However, if companies pursue their own interests excessively and ignore the true feelings of their employees, they may reap more harm than good, often reducing employee satisfaction and leading to brain drain, which in turn leads to a series of problems and risks. Li Wei said that some companies have negative behaviors such as dealing with expiring or expired products and completing performance amounts, and the gains outweigh the losses.

How to find legal and compliant boundaries

　　What kind of in-house purchase will satisfy both workers and enterprises? In Xu Bei's view, the criterion of a sense of boundary should be whether it is a voluntary behavior. "First of all, it is necessary to set detailed rules and regulations, and make detailed provisions on the purpose, product content, conditions and methods, timeliness and so on. If necessary, it will go through an internal democratic process for compliance legalization. "Second, we need to do a good job of tax compliance process regulations while making it convenient for businesses and employees." For the part that needs to be agreed, the corresponding contract should be formulated and confirmed by both parties. ”

　　Li Wei also believes that the core is that employees cannot be forced to buy. "Requiring employees to purchase the products or services of an enterprise, whether explicitly required or disguised as coercion, constitutes forced purchase and forced sale in civil law, which is in violation of the principle of voluntariness stipulated in the Civil Code. He further stated that "an employee's purchase is not a true expression of intent and can be revoked in accordance with the law." At the same time, if the employee refuses to buy, the company will transfer, reduce the salary, or even dismiss the employee, which violates the relevant provisions of the labor law, is an illegal act, and is not binding on the employee. ”

　　Li Wei also reminded that through internal purchases, employees reduce their living expenses, and actually increase disposable income in disguise, but this increase in income does not need to be included in the calculation base of the social security provident fund, which actually reduces the labor cost of the unit. However, due to the fact that the employee welfare expenditure incurred by the enterprise exceeds 14% of the total wages and salaries, it will increase the corporate income tax burden of the unit, so the enterprise must pay attention to the line of "14% of the total wages and salaries" when giving employees benefits or optimizing costs in this way.

　　"Employees should understand the requirements and regulations when they see the benefits, and take care to keep the written proof. Xu Bei said that now the awareness of self-protection of workers is constantly increasing, and she encourages every worker to protect their legitimate rights and interests while fulfilling their duties, and when their rights and interests are violated, they must bravely stand up and defend their rights.

　　Xu Bei also reminded that whether to buy the company's products is not related to personnel management such as rewards and punishments or dismissal. She said that there are detailed provisions on the termination of labor contracts in the labor law: "If the employee is at fault and the enterprise takes the initiative to terminate it, the circumstances of the fault shall be dealt with appropriately." If the enterprise requires the purchase of large goods in-house, and the employee has installments, it is also negotiated between the two parties during the termination process. ”

Source: Workers' Daily K25