Are the three telecom operators reducing their salaries in disguised form? Cancel car subsidies and communication subsidies, and some employees complain that their income has been halved

Tech 2023-05-23 14:27:44 Source: Network

Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Wang TingImage source: Image insect creativityAfter the year-end bonus fracture of internet giants, telecom operators have also begun to reduce subsidies and benefits.Recently, the news of operators lowering salaries and benefits has sparked heated discussions on various social media platforms

Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Wang Ting

Image source: Image insect creativity

After the year-end bonus fracture of internet giants, telecom operators have also begun to reduce subsidies and benefits.

Recently, the news of operators lowering salaries and benefits has sparked heated discussions on various social media platforms. Among them, two relevant notices stamped with the operator's official seal were circulated online, focusing on compliance management or reduction of personal transportation and communication subsidies.

Some frontline employees earn over a thousand yuan per month and rely on some subsidies to increase their income. Is this a disguised way of forcing them to leave? "Zhou Huan, a member of China Unicom in a county in southwestern China, told Times Finance that there was a monthly transportation subsidy of 1200 yuan, which has been notified to be cancelled since June, which means that the actual salary is about to be halved.

In addition to China Unicom, employees of China Mobile and China Telecom have also informed Times Finance that they have recently received notification that communication subsidies and transportation subsidies have been cancelled.

Cancellation of phone bill benefits, self funded package

Airlines' employees have free air tickets every year, but operators' employees have to pay their own phone bills. It's ridiculous to think about it, "Zhou Huan said. Due to the company's requirement for full staff marketing, he often travels through the streets or stops to promote phone cards and broadband, often having to answer and make calls.

During peak hours, Awei, a grassroots employee of China Mobile in Guangdong, answers at least 20 phone calls per hour to communicate business and internal affairs within the company. He roast that there are many learning requirements within the company, which requires employees to complete on various apps, which also consumes traffic.

Previously, Awei used a phone bill and traffic package of over 300 yuan paid by the company. In mid May, he received a verbal notice from his superiors that the communication and transportation subsidies would be cancelled, and he had to purchase a new package at his own expense. The monthly rent was 199 yuan. "I dare not spend it recklessly, so I limit the traffic every day

Including the above-mentioned telephone subsidy and a 400 yuan transportation subsidy, Awei actually receives over 3000 yuan per month. Now, the cancellation of telephone and transportation subsidies is a big psychological gap. He also mentioned that he has been working at China Mobile for more than ten years and has never been able to be promoted.

Chenlu, who is also a member of China Mobile and also belongs to Awei, has received news of the cancellation of communication and transportation subsidies. She works in Shaanxi and, including the transportation subsidy of 800 yuan, received a monthly salary of around 5000 yuan. The monthly communication subsidy of 350 yuan was distributed in the form of a package.

Even for leaders with particularly high incomes, canceling subsidies is very uncomfortable... let alone for us, it's equivalent to losing one fifth of our wages, "she said.

The news of the operator reducing subsidies has also attracted the attention of fresh student Xiao Hu. He is about to graduate and become a regular employee of China Unicom, but recently learned that meal and communication subsidies may be cancelled, the proportion of provident fund may decrease, and his basic salary may be discounted by 70%.

When the recruiter was preaching at school, they told us that there were many subsidies... I'm in a first tier city, and it's really uncomfortable if my salary is discounted too much. "He expected the actual monthly income to be 8000 yuan, but if we cancel benefits such as meal subsidies, transportation subsidies, and housing subsidies, the actual income is only 5000 yuan, which is equivalent to a 70% discount.

In July, Xiao Hu is going to participate in the pre employment training organized by the company and has already started to inspect the house. The monthly rent for a one bedroom, one living room house is 2000 yuan, which makes him feel a lot of pressure. However, the spring recruitment has ended, and he dare not give up this job.

Times Finance has observed that the workforce of the three major operators is extremely large, and if subsidies are completely eliminated, it will affect nearly a million employees. As of the end of 2022, the total number of employees employed by China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom is approximately 450000, 240000, and 280000, respectively.

On social media platforms, many operators' employees have expressed doubts about this: why has the company's stock price skyrocketed over the past year and the company still needs to cut employee subsidies? On May 22nd, China Mobile closed at 94.47 yuan per share, with a total market value of 2.02 trillion yuan. According to the total closing market value of 1.34 trillion yuan on May 23, 2022, the company's market value has skyrocketed by 680 billion yuan in one year.

Reduce costs and increase efficiency, reduce expenses

Times Finance observed that in 2022 and the first quarter of this year, due to increased investment in areas such as 5G, industrial digitization, or new infrastructure projects, the operating costs of the three major operators remained high, leading to stagnant or even declining profit margins. Faced with increasingly complex external environments, they have chosen to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

China Mobile's financial report shows that the global economic recovery is weak, geopolitical conflicts are frequent, and the triple pressures of national macroeconomic demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations are still significant. International trade and technological barriers lead to uncertainty in supply chain stability, which to some extent has an impact on enterprise operations.

The financial report also mentioned that during the period, China Mobile used digital intelligence technology to promote cost reduction and efficiency increase, achieving positive results, saving over 3.8 billion yuan in costs throughout the year. At the same time, the company strengthened cost control for all employees, all factors, and the entire process, continuously improving the level of refined management.

Last year, the year-on-year growth rate of China Mobile's sales and management expenses was less than 3%, with a decrease in their proportion to operating revenue, and the growth rate was lower than the growth rate of revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company. During the same period, the company's operating revenue was 937.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, and its net profit attributable to the parent company was 125.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%,

According to China Unicom's financial report, in 2022, the company's management expenses were approximately 23 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.3%. The reason for the change was the company's special action to improve quality and efficiency. In the first quarter of this year, the company's management expenses continued to decline, with a year-on-year decrease of 27.77%.

The financial report of China Telecom shows that in 2022, the company will also accelerate the Digital transformation of internal products, sales, services, operations and management, and continue to promote cost reduction and efficiency increase to improve operational efficiency.

During the same period, the growth rates of China Telecom's management expenses and sales expenses were lower than the revenue growth rates, at 3.8% and 3.1% respectively. The growth rates of revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company were 9.4% and 6.3%, respectively. In the first quarter of this year, China Telecom's sales expenses decreased by 0.4% year-on-year.

However, due to high operating costs, the profit margins of the three major operators remain stagnant or even decline. In 2022, China Telecom's telecommunications service gross profit margin will decrease by 0.78 percentage points; China Mobile's net profit margin attributable to the parent company was 13.4%, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous year. In the first quarter of this year, China Mobile's attributable net profit margin continued to decline year-on-year.

Policy requirement: reduce the general allowance and subsidy settings for operators

Why are the benefits for operator employees cancelled? Xiang Ligang, a communication industry observer interviewed by Times Finance, believes that there are very strict requirements in the country, requiring operators to plan and manage welfare and subsidies reasonably.

He mentioned that in the past, communication subsidies and transportation subsidies provided by operators were not included in cost management and were used arbitrarily, which was a loophole in the enterprise itself. Now, it is necessary to make this aspect of management more refined and effective.

In February of this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Management of Subsidies and Benefits for State Owned Enterprises" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which listed many welfare items that should be included in the total salary according to national regulations. It did not mention communication subsidies, transportation subsidies, and meal subsidies, but mentioned the unified provision of meals in self operated canteens or without canteens.

The Notice stipulates that, except for projects that are explicitly required by national regulations to be set up, enterprises should reduce the setting of general allowances and subsidies. At the same time, enterprise allowances and subsidies should be uniformly included in the total salary management and disbursed in the payable employee compensation. They should not be set up or distributed in a disguised form in the total salary in the form of vouchers or reimbursement according to personnel standards, and will be implemented from the date of issuance.

The aforementioned China Mobile website document mentioned the "Notice", which requires units that distribute personal transportation subsidies according to the standard per person to include the subsidies in the total salary management. Times Finance contacted China Mobile and China Telecom to verify the authenticity of two online transmission documents, but the phone was not connected.

Times Finance learned in an interview that subsidies for operators' employees have been included in their salaries. A grassroots employee from China Unicom Heilongjiang stated that their actual income has not decreased. "We included transportation and communication subsidies in our salaries a year ago, with transportation subsidies reduced by 200 yuan and housing provident fund increased a bit

Zhou Huan also heard that the cancelled subsidies will be included in the salary distribution, but he couldn't be happy because the total salary has not changed. "If it is included in the salary, then the year-end bonus should be less. Anyway, for the salary, the total amount is so much

The total salary budget of the three major operators is determined at the beginning of each year. According to the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's "Central Enterprise Payroll Management Measures", the payroll budget plan shall be submitted to the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission for filing or approval in the first quarter of each year after fulfilling the internal decision-making procedures of the enterprise.

At present, many operators' staff are waiting for the company's next notice. If the cancelled subsidies are paid in the name of wages, their income may not decrease.

(Zhou Huan, Awei, and Xiaohu are all pseudonyms in the text)

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