Beijing Yilian Legal Aid and Research Center of Labor Holds A Press Conference to Present Research on Payment by Uninsured Employers' Fund to Injured Workers not Covered by Workplace Injury Insurance
At 2:30 PM on June 28, 2012, Beijing Yilian Legal Aid and Research Center of Labor held a press conference in the Beijing Institute of Technology International Education Exchange Center to present research on payment by uninsured employers' fund to injured workers not covered by workplace injury insurance, releasing two reports entitled System of Payment by Uninsured Employers' Fund to Injured Workers not Covered by Workplace Injury Insurance, 2011-2012 Implementation Progress Research Report, and 2012 Human Resources and Social Security Department Governmental Information Disclosure Performance Analysis Report. Yilian Director Huang Leping, Executive Director Mao Sumei, and researcher Ye Mingxin enjoyed a cordial discussion about the reports with guests from 12 participating media outlets. The reports were based on telephone research conducted by Yilian to the social security administrations of 283 prefecture-level cities and 4 direct-controlled municipalities, as well as on Internet research, empirical study, and applications for the disclosure of government information. In total, Yilian completed 246 telephone inquiries, submitted 286 applications for disclosure of government information, and researched the social security web sites of 277 cities.
The system of payment by uninsured employers' fund to injured workers not covered by workplace injury insurance is an important system created by the Social Insurance Law, which came into effect on July 1, 2011. The Social Insurance Law, Article 41, stipulates: “If employers fail to pay work-related injury insurance premium in accordance with law, in case of work-related accidents, the employers shall pay for the work-related injury insurance benefits. Work-related insurance fund shall advance such payment if the employers don’t pay such costs. Work-related injury benefits paid in advance by the work injury insurance fund shall be repaid by the employers. If the employers do not pay, social insurance agencies shall be entitled to chase for such payment in accordance with the provisions of Article 63 of this Law.” This system is an important milestone in the history of protecting workers with work-related injuries.
However, by the first anniversary of the implementation of the Social Insurance Law, the system has met with a very embarrassing situation: although the system is making headway in a few cities, throughout most of the country it is practically nonexistent. According to the Research Report, the extent to which the system has been implemented is too low: only 11.4% of the cities show that they can accept applications for payment by uninsured employers' fund to injured workers not covered by workplace injury insurance, and even in these cities one cannot be sure that the applications will succeed. In addition, the system has not been coherently put in place; only 9 of the cities – a mere 4.4% – have passed detailed regulations on how to implement the advance work injury insurance system. 89% of uninsured workers neither understand the advance payment system, nor, since only 13.7% of the cities have posted information on Provisional Social Insurance Fund Payment Methods on their Web sites, do they have sufficient channels to understand it. Even for social security staff, the system is a blind spot – 77.9% of 12,333 hotline staff “have not heard” of the system, and even among the professional staff at the cities’ social security departments, 35.8% "do not know" about the system. The reasons for these problems include: the absence of regulations, the risk of funding, capacity constraints, a lack of knowledge, and a lack of motivation. In these regards, Yilian promotes the further implementation of proposals to improve the system.
2012 Human Resources and Social Security Department Governmental Information Disclosure Performance Analysis Report is an analysis of government disclosure of public information for the aforementioned Research Report. Only 31.7 percent of the cities’ social security departments responded to Yilian’s inquiries within the legally-mandated time limit: therefore, nearly 70 percent of the cities’ human resources and social security departments have not met their obligations for government information disclosure. In addition to this, social security departments in all parts of the country still use non-standard methods for replying to applications for information disclosure to citizens. Other problems include: the reasons for failure to respond are unreasonable (related to the abuse of state or professional secrets); there exists a lack of convenient and secure applications pathways; there are many situations require additional supplementary materials; requirements exist that mandate “one application per issue”; and so forth.
This photo and article are original with copyright reserved to the author and Yilian. Please note the origin in your reference, thanks.
(Editor: Timothy & Faith)
The system of payment by uninsured employers' fund to injured workers not covered by workplace injury insurance is an important system created by the Social Insurance Law, which came into effect on July 1, 2011. The Social Insurance Law, Article 41, stipulates: “If employers fail to pay work-related injury insurance premium in accordance with law, in case of work-related accidents, the employers shall pay for the work-related injury insurance benefits. Work-related insurance fund shall advance such payment if the employers don’t pay such costs. Work-related injury benefits paid in advance by the work injury insurance fund shall be repaid by the employers. If the employers do not pay, social insurance agencies shall be entitled to chase for such payment in accordance with the provisions of Article 63 of this Law.” This system is an important milestone in the history of protecting workers with work-related injuries.
However, by the first anniversary of the implementation of the Social Insurance Law, the system has met with a very embarrassing situation: although the system is making headway in a few cities, throughout most of the country it is practically nonexistent. According to the Research Report, the extent to which the system has been implemented is too low: only 11.4% of the cities show that they can accept applications for payment by uninsured employers' fund to injured workers not covered by workplace injury insurance, and even in these cities one cannot be sure that the applications will succeed. In addition, the system has not been coherently put in place; only 9 of the cities – a mere 4.4% – have passed detailed regulations on how to implement the advance work injury insurance system. 89% of uninsured workers neither understand the advance payment system, nor, since only 13.7% of the cities have posted information on Provisional Social Insurance Fund Payment Methods on their Web sites, do they have sufficient channels to understand it. Even for social security staff, the system is a blind spot – 77.9% of 12,333 hotline staff “have not heard” of the system, and even among the professional staff at the cities’ social security departments, 35.8% "do not know" about the system. The reasons for these problems include: the absence of regulations, the risk of funding, capacity constraints, a lack of knowledge, and a lack of motivation. In these regards, Yilian promotes the further implementation of proposals to improve the system.
2012 Human Resources and Social Security Department Governmental Information Disclosure Performance Analysis Report is an analysis of government disclosure of public information for the aforementioned Research Report. Only 31.7 percent of the cities’ social security departments responded to Yilian’s inquiries within the legally-mandated time limit: therefore, nearly 70 percent of the cities’ human resources and social security departments have not met their obligations for government information disclosure. In addition to this, social security departments in all parts of the country still use non-standard methods for replying to applications for information disclosure to citizens. Other problems include: the reasons for failure to respond are unreasonable (related to the abuse of state or professional secrets); there exists a lack of convenient and secure applications pathways; there are many situations require additional supplementary materials; requirements exist that mandate “one application per issue”; and so forth.
This photo and article are original with copyright reserved to the author and Yilian. Please note the origin in your reference, thanks.
(Editor: Timothy & Faith)
