The evil of subcontracting jobs

Some regular sanitation workers in Zhengzhou, Henan province, pay elderly rural residents 1,240 yuan ($203) a month to "work" for them as temporary workers and take the rest of the monthly salary of 3,000 yuan without actually doing any work, compelling the authorities to start an investigation into the scandal, says an article in Beijing Times. Excerpts:

Many media outlets have carried reports on sanitation workers in cities, saying their salary is low and their rights and interests are not protected. As a result, the public assumed that the workers referred to in the reports were employed by government departments without suspecting that they were instead "hired" by regular workers to do their work for less than half their salary.

This may appear shocking to people, but subcontracting work has become quite common in several fields today. In some less developed areas, the situation is worse. For example, many graduates from normal colleges who fail to find jobs easily fall prey to such subcontracting scandals.

But the case in Zhengzhou is far worse. Some regular workers employed by the local hygiene department subcontracted their jobs to rural residents for less than half their salary and used the work hours to make more money doing other jobs, which is indeed absurd.

The problem may appear to be with the local sanitation department's supervision. But perhaps a thorough reform is needed for government departments to adopt an employment system akin to private companies in order to eliminate such scandalous practices.

(China Daily 08/20/2013 page9)