abstract:
The orderly return to work of more than 50 million migrant workers in the construction industry is related to the overall situation of economic and social stability. China Economic Information Agency, china construction news Agency and china association for labour studies recently conducted a joint survey on local government departments, construction enterprises and construction workers. The results show that at present, the rate of major projects in various places is relatively high, and the support policies and related guarantees are relatively adequate. However, most non-major projects still face outstanding problems such as low rate of workers returning to work, poor accommodation conditions on the site and rising prices of building materials, which greatly restricts the resumption of work and production. Since the first quarter is not the peak season of construction industry, many interviewed enterprises said that if the orderly resumption of work and production is realized as soon as possible, it is expected that the construction gap in the first quarter will be made up in the last three quarters.
Experts believe that the working environment of construction sites is low in standardization, the mobility of construction workers is high, the degree of professionalism is low, the level of standardized management is low, and there are big shortcomings in emergency response capacity. It is suggested that all localities should comprehensively consider and make precise policies on personnel prevention and control, transportation of epidemic prevention materials and building materials, and realistically adjust the corresponding charging standards in the cost quota for the shortage of labor and the increase of labor costs, so as to reduce the burden for enterprises reasonably and legally, and avoid enterprises from making subtraction on the project quality to make up for the losses under the dual pressure of labor shortage and time limit.
At this stage, we should accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional construction methods, vigorously promote prefabricated buildings and industrialized construction methods, take this epidemic as an opportunity to build an online employment information platform, and formulate relevant professional skills standards and evaluation norms for construction workers. The professionalization of construction workers can solve the problems of high turnover rate, high mobility and low sense of gain in the construction industry to some extent.
First, the construction site is facing multiple unfavorable factors.
In order to ensure the normal operation of the economy, all localities attach great importance to epidemic prevention work and actively guide construction sites to resume work in an orderly manner. However, due to multiple unfavorable factors, the resumption rate of projects under construction in many places is not high, the construction period is generally delayed, the payment of construction enterprises is not timely, and some enterprises even face the risk of capital chain breakage.
(1)The progress of resumption of construction in many places is slow.
According to the investigation, construction enterprises play a major role in the prevention and control of epidemic situation on site, and local governments are also continuously strengthening the guidance and supervision of epidemic prevention work on site and giving policy support to enterprises.
With the promotion of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other local government departments, as of March 8, 111,900 of the 192,500 housing construction and municipal infrastructure projects in China have resumed work, with a resumption rate of 58.15%.
Compared with previous years, the downtime of this construction site has been significantly prolonged, and the project period has been generally delayed. Xinhua News Agency economic analysts believe that the slow progress of resumption of work will lead to delays in the construction period, project breach, pressure on construction enterprises, and the longer the shutdown time, the greater the adverse impact on enterprises and industries.
(1)The delay in construction period leads to a substantial increase in project cost.
According to industry insiders, the delay in the construction period will lead to the project not being delivered as scheduled, and the construction unit needs to pay liquidated damages to the construction unit according to the number of days of delay. The liquidated damages of individual projects are as high as tens of thousands of yuan per day, which directly leads to a substantial increase in the project cost.
There are two kinds of delays. First, the local government of the project explicitly requested to postpone the resumption of work, which led to the delay of the construction period. In this case, if the losses and expenses caused by epidemic prevention and control increase, the relevant clauses of force majeure in the contract shall apply, and the liquidated damages may be exempted if the delay is within the specified time. Affected by the epidemic situation, the possible price fluctuation of labor, materials, equipment and machinery shall be jointly borne by the contracting parties according to the actual situation of the project.
Second, there is no mandatory requirement to postpone the resumption of work at the location of the project, but the labor or materials needed for the project are suspended, which indirectly affects the resumption of work. In this case, although according to the provisions of the contract law, the epidemic constitutes force majeure, and the construction unit has the right to waive its liability for breach of contract by claiming to postpone the construction period, it needs to be within a certain range, and the procedure is complicated and takes a long time. As a result, most construction units still have to pay a lot of liquidated damages.
According to Shanghai Jianling Chengda Law Firm, it is necessary to prove the existence of force majeure, the causal relationship between force majeure and the delay of the construction period, and the rationality of applying for the extension of the number of days. Considering the discretion of local courts and different judgment tendencies, the construction period that the contractor can claim to postpone can only be listed to the greatest extent, and it is uncertain whether the construction period can be fully supported by the employer or the referee.
In addition, even if we resume work as scheduled, the investigation and disinfection of epidemic situation at the construction site, the purchase of medical protective equipment, the isolation and disposal of suspected infected personnel, the shortage of labor and materials and the rising cost will push up the project cost. It is understood that most construction engineering materials implement information price, and the current market price has risen sharply. Once the information price adjustment is too low or lagging behind, it will lead to the inversion of information price and material purchase price, resulting in a large number of engineering losses.
(2)Some enterprises are facing the risk of capital chain breakage.,Migrant workers face the risk of unpaid wages.
Some construction enterprises are facing the risk of capital chain breakage, such as shrinking contract output value, idle materials, rising labor costs and untimely payment due to delayed resumption of work. Pay attention to the risk of wage arrears faced by migrant workers after returning to work.
Affected by the epidemic, enterprises were unable to participate in market bidding, and the contract output value shrank. Many expenses, such as damage (repair) expenses of materials and engineering equipment that have been transported to the construction site, rental expenses of engineering machinery and equipment, office rental expenses, wages of managers and left-behind workers that must be paid, and safety maintenance expenses on the construction site, have caused enterprises to face a lot of losses. The suspension and extension of the construction period lead to the failure of enterprises to recover the project funds on schedule, which makes the cash flow of enterprises more tense and the financial expenses increase. Some private construction enterprises’ funds can’t operate normally, and they are in danger of breaking the capital chain. Affected by this, migrant workers face the risk of unpaid wages, and it is more difficult to recover the previously owed wages.
Two or four problems restrict the construction site from returning to work.
On the whole, housing and urban-rural construction departments, construction enterprises and construction units all over the country have invested a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to carry out site resumption and on-site epidemic prevention work, but at present, site resumption still faces problems such as shortage of workers, insufficient prevention and control materials and rising prices of building materials.
(A) the shortage of construction workers, it is difficult to recruit workers and it is difficult to return to work.
Fan Jun, secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of Beijing Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd., said that in recent years, industries such as express delivery have become more attractive to young laborers, and the difficulty in recruiting workers in the construction industry has become increasingly prominent due to problems such as high work intensity, low remuneration level and poor working environment. During this period, affected by the epidemic, some workers were unable to return to Beijing, and some workers needed to be temporarily isolated after returning to Beijing, making it difficult for them to take up their posts for a short time, which led to a more severe situation of "employment difficulties" for enterprises.
Major cities in China are still at high risk and high risk level, and risk prevention and control is strict. Migrant workers need to be isolated for 14 days, and enterprises bear their own costs, which greatly limits the return of workers.
(2)The accommodation conditions on the construction site are difficult to meet the standards, and the construction unit dare not take risks.
Many people in the industry reported that some local governments funded workers to return to work, which eased the pressure on enterprises to some extent. However, after workers reworked, most of them lived in collective dormitories, and the accommodation problem during the 14-day isolation period was difficult to solve.
"Who is the salary during the isolation period after the workers return to Tianjin? Where to isolate? How do workers eat and stay alone? According to the characteristics of site construction, most small and medium-sized enterprises are difficult to do. " Qin Jianfa, chairman of Tianjin Wenling Construction Engineering Co., Ltd., said that once a confirmed case is found on the construction site after the resumption of work, it will immediately stop work and be handled as an accident. Developers and construction units dare not take risks, and everyone is generally cautious about resuming work, preferring to delay the construction period.
(3)Lack of epidemic prevention materials makes it difficult to put prevention and control measures in place.
In the survey, enterprises generally report that there is a big gap in protective materials such as masks, protective clothing and infrared thermometers, which is a common problem that restricts the construction site from returning to work.
The National Development and Reform Commission announced on March 2 that on February 29, the national daily production capacity of masks will reach 110 million, and the daily output will reach 116 million. According to the prediction of the Safety and Health Protection Articles Committee of China Textile Business Association, if the whole country resumes production, the daily demand for masks will reach 500 million. There is still a big gap between supply and demand of epidemic prevention materials.
In Xinxiang City, Henan Province, although there are many manufacturers of epidemic prevention materials, such as masks, which are the main concentration of protective materials manufacturers in Henan Province, after the enterprises fully resume work, the number of employees of industrial enterprises above designated size is about 300,000, and the demand for masks is about 600,000 per day, so the output cannot fully meet the demand.
(4)Unbalanced supply and demand of building materials increases construction cost.
Economic operation is a complete industrial chain cycle. If any link is blocked, upstream and downstream enterprises can’t operate normally. At present, the levels of epidemic prevention and control are different across the country, the conditions of enterprises are different, and the progress of resuming work and production is also different.
According to the investigation, the imbalance between supply and demand of building materials is widespread, and raw materials such as steel bars, cement, sand and gravel are in short supply and prices are rising in some areas. Chen Guoqing, full-time vice president of China National Building Materials Federation, said that it is estimated that the output of cement above designated size will drop by 49% in January and February this year, and the output of commercial concrete, cement concrete products, technical glass, ceramic tiles, building stones and other products will drop by more than 30% compared with the same period of last year.
According to Zhou Xin, deputy chief engineer of Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Southern Expressway, during the epidemic, sand mining and quarrying companies in Jiangxi and Chongqing stopped production, and building materials could not be put in place for a long time. At present, the upstream production capacity is gradually recovering.
Third, speed up the intelligent upgrade to ease the pressure of returning to work on construction sites
Experts pointed out that the working environment of construction sites is low in standardization, the mobility of construction workers is high, the degree of professionalism is low, the level of standardized management is low, and there are big shortcomings in emergency response capacity. All localities should make overall arrangements and precise policies, reasonably and legally reduce the burden on enterprises, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional construction methods, vigorously promote prefabricated buildings and new industrialized construction methods, and take the epidemic as an opportunity to build an online employment information platform and formulate relevant professional skills standards and evaluation norms for construction workers.
One isAdjust the corresponding charging standards in the cost quota realistically, so as to avoid enterprises from making subtraction in the project quality to make up for the losses under the double pressure of labor shortage and time limit.
For the increase of epidemic prevention cost, labor cost and raw material cost after the resumption of work, government departments should adjust the corresponding charging standards in the cost quota realistically, reduce the burden for enterprises reasonably and legally, and guide all participants to supplement the agreement according to the actual situation, jointly safeguard a fair and orderly market environment and ensure good project quality.
Hunan Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has clearly stipulated that a supplementary agreement can be signed according to the provisions for the changes in project price caused by epidemic prevention measures, changes in labor wages and material prices, and the expenses will be confirmed by the visas of both contracting parties and adjusted according to the actual situation.
During the epidemic period, construction enterprises are under great financial pressure, and the wage deposit for migrant workers can be appropriately reduced or exempted. At present, Chongqing has implemented the policy of reducing and exempting migrant workers’ wage deposits, with 50% reduction for construction units and general contracting enterprises that have not defaulted in Chongqing in the previous year, 60% reduction for two consecutive years, and exemption from migrant workers’ wage deposits for three consecutive years.
Regarding the risk of wage arrears faced by migrant workers, it is suggested that local people’s organizations, development and reform departments and other departments rely on the information platform to sort out and collect relevant information on wage payment of migrant workers, and regularly publish "credibility index for Wage Payment of Migrant Workers" and "Red and Black List of Enterprises"; For enterprises that fail to pay back their wages, we can increase the warning and punishment by means of informed criticism and credit evaluation deduction, so as to promote the formation of a social atmosphere in which they dare not, cannot and do not want to pay back their wages.
In addition, the corresponding local management agencies should take the initiative to strengthen the monitoring of labor and material prices of construction projects and the cost of epidemic prevention and control measures during the epidemic prevention and control period, timely and accurately release and adjust the cost information of various construction projects, and provide a basis for both contracting parties to reasonably determine the project price.
The second is to speed up the transformation of traditional construction methods and vigorously promote prefabricated buildings; Improve the intelligence level of the whole industry and ensure the smooth flow of information and logistics.
Under the epidemic situation, the advantage of factory production of prefabricated buildings is less than that of traditional construction sites, and it is easier to achieve factory resumption than site resumption. The industry believes that the epidemic has had an impact on the construction industry, but it is also an opportunity for industry transformation.
In the future, prefabricated construction enterprises will be divided into two development models. One is a comprehensive large-scale industrial group, which manages the whole process of construction projects from planning to construction to final operation and maintenance; The other is a "specialized", "refined" and "sophisticated" professional enterprise, which is excellent, refined and specialized in a certain field and forms standardized and universal products under the condition of marketization.
Fan Jun believes that the potential of prefabricated construction projects in saving labor has not been fully exerted, mainly because the construction technology is not mature enough, the industrial workers are insufficient, and the quality and supply capacity of prefabricated components still need to be improved. "Therefore, at this stage, the government needs to continue to introduce preferential policies and incentives to promote the sustainable development of prefabricated buildings."
Yuan Zhenggang, president of Guanglianda Technology Co., Ltd. suggested that construction enterprises should actively use digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, and adopt more online coordination methods to organize production to ensure the smooth flow of information and logistics. In the information flow part, it is necessary to improve the collaborative business management system and realize the integration of project and enterprise management; In the logistics part, enterprises can establish their own centralized procurement platform by improving the supply chain, and grasp the trends of supplier’s product processing and transportation in real time through other information technologies, so as to effectively ensure smooth logistics on the basis of full and effective linkage with suppliers.
The third is to deepen the reform of the labor employment system, build an online employment information platform, establish a construction worker training system and a vocational skill appraisal system, and effectively solve the labor shortage problem.
The insiders believe that the construction unit can be guided to train its own construction workers, mainly special jobs and high-skilled construction workers, as the technical backbone to undertake the work of shift or supervision on the construction site; Encourage construction enterprises to establish their own assembled professional workers and improve the professional construction ability and level of assembled buildings. Large and medium-sized labor service enterprises can make full use of their own advantages to build an online labor service platform and provide qualified construction workers for construction enterprises. Small and micro labor service enterprises should transform and develop into professional operation enterprises and do specialized professional operations.
Xinhua News Agency economic analysts believe that the professionalization of construction workers can solve the problems of high turnover rate, high mobility and low sense of acquisition in the construction industry to some extent. Large and medium-sized general contracting enterprises with conditions can establish training and assessment institutions for skilled personnel, and independently carry out training, assessment and certification of enterprise workers. Government departments should guide construction enterprises to carry out pre-job training and skills upgrading training by strengthening school-enterprise cooperation, new apprenticeship and other forms, and establish a skill-oriented incentive mechanism. Enterprises and government departments should jointly do a good job in the formulation of relevant professional skills standards and evaluation norms for construction workers, and promote the professional appraisal of construction workers in accordance with the occupational types specified in the national vocational qualification catalogue.
planrow: Kuang Lecheng Wang Shengjun Jinlei
holdpen: Li Anran Xiao Zhenghua
Research cooperation unit: china construction news, china association for labour studies
Participate in researchpersonnel: Juck Zhang Yuan Bo Wang Ning Zhu Cheng Sun Yin
Zhang Lei Cui Lu Yang Youzong Li Wenzhe Gao Yangyang Cheng Xiaoli Lan Haixiao
editvolume: Zhang Changan Wanli Li Wei Li Zhen
