The "secret salary system" should not be a tool that infringes on workers' rights and interests

Recently, a well-known technology and communications company issued an employee memo announcing that employees have the right to discuss working conditions and compensation. For a time, the topic of “whether companies should implement a salary confidentiality system” once again attracted attention.

As a management method introduced from abroad, the salary confidentiality system has become an express requirement of many companies in our country. From an enterprise perspective, isolating the sensitive topic of "how much you earn" among employees can help strengthen salary incentives, reduce personnel instability caused by comparison, and reduce labor costs. However, from the perspective of workers, prohibiting salary discussions may infringe on their rights to equal pay for equal work and their right to know about labor remuneration.

Lawyers interviewed said that the company's secret salary system cannot be abused, let alone cross legal red lines and become a tool to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of workers.

There are no restrictions on internal corporate systems, laws and regulations

"This is a rule from entry to resignation." When it comes to 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 the labor contract, employee handbook and new employee training meeting, "it is prohibited to disclose one's own salary, and it is prohibited to inquire about the salary of colleagues" are important contents.

In more than two years of working in this company, Liu Nan almost never heard her colleagues discuss salary-related topics. During this period, he once applied for a salary increase, and the specific amount of the increase was determined after consultation with his leadership and the head of the human resources department.

Meng Jiajie, who lives in Chengdu, works in human resources for a large real estate company. According to her, every time a new employee joins the company, the human resources department will require them to read the company's regulations and sign for confirmation, which includes 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 were the first to introduce this system generally require employees not to discuss salary income through signing agreements, verbal notifications, etc.

In 2020, Liu Nan applied to the company for resignation due to studying abroad. During the procedure, the human resources department asked him to sign an agreement that included clauses such as "after leaving the company, he will not be able to discuss salary with relevant company personnel."

Tang Langjun, a lawyer at Sichuan Juntang Law Firm, said that the salary confidentiality system is an internal rule of the employer, and each company can determine it according to its own specific circumstances, but it must abide by the rules and regulations and publicity procedures, and its content must not conflict with laws and regulations. conflict. At present, national laws and regulations neither stipulate salary confidentiality nor prohibit companies from adopting a salary secret system.

Strengthened salary incentives, but may be contrary to equal pay for equal work

As a controversial measure in human resource management, academic circles have conducted more and more research on salary confidentiality systems in recent years. Research by Zhang Zhengtang, a professor at the Department of Human Resources Management of Nanjing University Business School, found that implementing salary confidentiality allows companies to provide widely varying salaries based on employee performance, enhance the incentive effect of salary, and at the same time avoid internal conflicts due to income gaps.

This is one of the main reasons why many companies implement salary confidentiality systems. Meng Jiajie gave the example of accounting employees in her company. Although they are all engaged in accounting work, due to different specific real estate projects and different scale and complexity of accounting, the income of employees will be significantly different.

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

"This can not only distribute according to work, but also prevent employees from making unreasonable salary comparisons, thereby reducing staff turnover." Meng Jiajie added that at present, more and more people born in the 90s and 2000s are entering the workplace. In their view, their income is Confidentiality is also about respecting privacy.

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

Lawyer Zeng Jiakui of Hunan Tiandiren Law Firm found that some companies did use the salary confidentiality system to violate labor law regulations, making it difficult for some workers in basic and routine positions to enjoy equal pay for equal work.

In fact, the foreign salary confidentiality system was first used by employers to negotiate 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 applicants to fill in their expected salary during the written recruitment examination. After working for a period of time, a colleague who joined Liu Nan as a fresh graduate and worked in the same position accidentally learned that his salary was nearly 1,500 yuan less than Liu Nan's because the expected salary he filled in was lower. "The company saved a lot of money by taking advantage of the 'convenience' of keeping salary secrets," Liu Nan said.

Many interviewees told reporters that in rapidly developing industries such as the Internet and finance, salary inversion is relatively common. "The newcomers are young and have no job title, but they work a lot of overtime and their salary may be higher than that of the 'old people'." An employee of a foreign bank believes that this is one of the reasons why many companies implement salary confidentiality systems.

The contract will be terminated if breach of contract is made? "Family rules" should not be greater than "national law"

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

Meng Jiajie admitted that her company had once persuaded an employee to quit. "In addition to his unsatisfactory work performance, the employee who was asking about the salary of his colleagues some time before he was dismissed was also a major reason for the company's decision."

The reporter's search found that workers have been terminated from their labor contracts due to discussions about wages. In judicial practice, there are many cases where this behavior is ultimately ruled to be an illegal termination of the labor contract.

In Tang Langjun's view, one of the main reasons why the employer lost the lawsuit was that the employee's behavior of inquiring or discussing wages did not meet the requirements of Article 39 of the Labor Contract Law, which stipulates that "the employer may terminate the labor contract" and "the employee has seriously violated the employer's "Conditions of the unit's rules and regulations." "Discussing wages is generally unlikely to cause what companies call 'serious consequences.'"

Some courts also found that the salary confidentiality system violated the principle of equal pay for equal work stipulated in the labor law, and therefore ruled in favor of the workers.

The People's Court of Xishan District, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province ruled this way in a case in 2013. The reason is that when salaries are kept confidential, workers lack the right to know and their rights and interests of equal pay for equal work cannot be relied upon. For some basic and routine positions, , or there is a lack of fairness among workers of the same type of work.

Zeng Jiakui said that if an enterprise wants to implement a salary confidentiality system, it must follow the principles of rationality, scientificity, and integrity on the basis of legality. At the same time, the role of the Workers' Congress must be brought into play. Rules and regulations or plans for major matters that directly involve the vital interests of workers must be submitted to the Workers' Congress for review and made public to employees.

The Xishan District People's Court believes that an open salary system can make internal communication more effective, reduce misinformation, and enhance trust. As a system, the salary grade system, job gaps and operating procedures should also be open to the public.

Source: Workers Daily

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