In zhantang Road, Hefei, Anhui Province, there is an open-air labor market spontaneously formed by the people. From 3 a.m. every day, many migrant workers will gather here one after another, waiting for work opportunities. But is it easy to find a job this year? Can these migrant workers, who have no relatives or dependents, get some real help on the road of employment and making money?
she couldn’t find a job for six days. She wiped her tears on the side of the road
At 3 a.m. on January 10, 2022, hundreds of migrant workers came to zhantang road in Hefei, Anhui Province. In this spontaneously formed labor market, there are cleaners, welders, steel workers and scaffolders, mostly over the age of 50.
Yaohai District of Hefei is a typical urban-rural fringe, especially near zhantang road. Many farmers who work in the city rent cheap houses here. The small package foreman on the construction site also found that workers can be found here. Over time, people gather more and more. Zhantang road has also become a synonym for “free labor market”. At its peak, Four or five thousand migrant workers gather here every day to look for job opportunities.
However, in 2020, the government set up the “Anhui Construction Migrant Workers entrepreneurship Incubation Park” in this street to create a construction labor market facing the whole province and an entrepreneurship incubation base “at the door of home”. Most migrant workers gradually transferred to the Incubation Park to find jobs. However, up to now, there are still one or two hundred people who stick to the open air every day.
Hundreds of mobile workers gathered at one intersection. Although the spontaneously formed labor market has brought convenience to the migrant workers and hiring contractors, it has caused trouble to urban management and other industries. The urban management department has not received few complaints from citizens.
How to coordinate the comprehensive development of the interests of all parties is a difficult problem for urban managers. Every morning, Yaohai District deploys seven departments, including public security, traffic police, urban management, human resources and social security, and health. Fifty or six people manage here according to different functions.
Zhang Jianning, director of human resources and Social Security Bureau of Yaohai District, Hefei City, Anhui Province
In the early morning of a rainy day, the reporter met Jin Li who was wiping his tears. She has not found work for six days, and she is even more anxious in rainy days.
In order to work for the construction site at any time, Jin Li took the standard configuration of migrant workers who came to the city from zhantang road with her: a 10 yuan work hat and a self-made tool kit. The tool kit contained the fried dumplings she bought for 1.50 yuan in the morning, which she had not had time to eat.
Crying is not the way. Jin Li wiped his tears and went to the roadside to continue looking forward to the arrival of the contractor. Suddenly she turned and walked across the road and hurried to a red tricycle. We thought she was going to grab a job, but we didn’t expect to ask for salary.
Perhaps the reporter was holding the camera. Jin Li was owed 200 yuan for one month. Today, she recovered very smoothly. Finally, she began to show a smile on her face.
In zhantang Road, it is common to be owed wages. Although various recruitment advertisements are displayed on the electronic screen of the incubator, there are still a large number of migrant workers staying by the road. First, they value that wages are settled here. Second, most people don’t believe that pie falls from the sky and can get work without standing on the road.
However, although the daily salary sounds happy, they don’t sign the contract and take the money to leave. Most people who choose daily settlement don’t care about what projects they have been to, where they have worked, and even don’t know the name of the construction unit, which also lays a hidden danger for salary negotiation in the future.
Cai ChuanHua, 61, from Feidong County, worked with a contractor on zhantang road for half a year in 2019. He not only earned money, but also had the company’s qualification. In CAI ChuanHua’s opinion, the foreman was more credible than other strangers, so he worked for another year. What he never expected was that after he chose to believe, the contractor disappeared and the salary of 41000 yuan was gone.
He took the IOU and almost ran all over Hefei. As long as he didn’t find work in the early morning, he went to the places related to the IOU one by one during the day, but he never found it.
The chapter payment company on the IOU has been pulled into the list of dishonest persons by relevant departments. Cai ChuanHua failed to ask for salary and had no way to complain, which has become a common phenomenon that street workers are in arrears.
Seeing the New Year approaching, Cai ChuanHua decided to try his luck when he heard that the migrant workers’ incubator could provide legal aid for migrant workers in the city. In the “happy post station” of the migrant workers’ Incubation Park, lawyers work twice a week to provide free legal aid, specifically to solve the problem of wage arrears of migrant workers, and has provided advisory services to thousands of migrant workers.
According to the 2020 migrant workers monitoring survey report released by the National Bureau of statistics, the proportion of migrant workers over the age of 50 in China is 26.4%, an increase of 1.8 percentage points over 2019, and the proportion continues to increase.
Among all migrant workers, the proportion of culture below high school accounts for more than 71%. Older and less educated, zhantang road seems to be an epitome of the structure of migrant workers in China.
migrant workers can find jobs on their mobile phones when they have an entrepreneurship Incubation Park
In 2019, a construction enterprise and Yaohai district jointly invested 5 million yuan to build this entrepreneurship Incubation Park for migrant workers, which is specially designed to solve the employment problem of migrant workers.
The site of the province’s first migrant workers entrepreneurship Incubation Park is a primary school before zhantang road.
Shaoxiao, 48, didn’t graduate from primary school. He has been doing odd jobs in zhantang road since Lu’an. He didn’t expect to register his company in the incubator one day and realize his entrepreneurial dream.
Shao Xiao told reporters that his initial fantasy of the Incubation Park was satisfied with only a toilet and a boiled water room.
The Incubation Park not only provides toilets and hot water, but also provides more secure job opportunities. After work every night, Shao school looks for work the next day through the “Huicheng craftsman” mobile phone application provided by the park.
After the appointment is successful, go directly to the construction site the next day without getting up early or worrying about meeting Laolai.
The Beijing Vastdata Technology Co.Ltd(603138) provided by big data not only promoted the effective connection between supply and demand, but also left traces in the transaction and traced the source in the whole process. Relevant departments carried out online monitoring to reduce the risk of workers being in arrears, and cracked the biggest pain point of the previous road labor market with technical means.
In August 2021, Hefei set up a special rectification leading group office for the “road labor market” to crack down on illegal employment in the “road labor market” and malicious arrears of wages of migrant workers.
Technology and policy work together. The more standardized the employment is, the more prosperous the market will be. On the wall at the entrance of the Incubation Park, information about more than 200 companies established by migrant workers in the past two years with the help of the platform is densely pasted, and the new company of Shao school is about to become one of them.
Because job hunting has been carried out online, no one is looking for a job on site in this incubator that has absorbed job seekers from four or five thousand roads. However, Shao school still plans to find the core members of the future team here, and the candidates are in this training room.
Since its establishment one year ago, the Incubation Park has provided 39 professional skills training and examinations, covering 8 types of work, including carpentry and electrician, benefiting more than 7200 people.
Now, the 180 Mu urban village of zhantang road is being demolished and will get better and better in the future.
[half an hour observation] it is not difficult to develop both dredging and blocking
Labor markets such as zhantang road actually exist in many cities. They provide some convenience for migrant workers to find jobs, but also cover up many disadvantages such as the inability to protect the rights and interests of workers. It is gratifying that government departments at all levels have taken many measures, such as establishing a standardized labor market nearby, organizing migrant workers to carry out skill training, strengthening the credit supervision of employment enterprises, and doing their best to ensure the smooth road of labor and employment at all levels. Not only that, with their own ability and patience, city managers still keep the open-air labor market on zhantang road. Perhaps they want to tell all migrant workers who come here to find work that even if it is cold in winter, there will still be warmth, companionship and a better tomorrow on the employment road.
