Chapter 123 - The Worker Grading System

“As for the specific details, you can look at the documents sent to the various ministries and commissions. After everyone has read them, you can submit your opinions to the Ministry of Education’s OA.”

“Let’s not talk about the school for now. Isn’t it time to organize the worker rating?” said Zhan Wuya, the representative of the Industrial and Energy Committee.

Wu De touched his forehead, “I forgot about that! You’re right, the Ministry of Education is going to create diplomas, so the matter of professional titles must also be taken up!”

The current wage distribution system was that the Labor Affairs Office under the Ministry of Civil Affairs uniformly formulated wage standards, which were then uniformly distributed through the Delong Grain Bank. The wages of employees only had three or four grades, and everyone earned about the same regardless of what they did. This system could not reflect the difficulty of the work content, nor could it create a gap in income levels.

Zhan Wuya nodded, “The professional title system is very useful for motivating workers to learn technology. Besides, the next step involves the wage plan. Without grades, we can only go by seniority, which will easily cause dissatisfaction.”

“People with skills can’t get higher pay, so everyone just tries to get by on seniority, right?” Wu De certainly knew this situation.

“Yes. There are now more than a thousand workers under the Industrial and Energy Committee. This matter must be put on the agenda,” Zhan Wuya took out a roll of paper from his bag. “This is a plan for the technical grading of workers under the Industrial and Energy Committee that we have formulated ourselves.”

Under this system, an industrial worker started as an apprentice. During the apprenticeship, they did not receive a salary, only a small amount of pocket money. After the apprenticeship was completed and they passed the skills assessment, they became a helper. A helper was not a formal worker and only received a “labor allowance” equivalent to fifty percent of a formal worker’s salary. After working as a helper for another year, passing the skills assessment, and holding a C-level diploma, they could be promoted to a first-level formal worker.

Once they became a formal worker, they entered the formal salaried system. They would no longer receive “pocket money” and “allowances,” but a formal salary. Their treatment would also be greatly improved. In the future, as long as they worked hard and their defective product rate remained below the standard line, they could be promoted one level each year. They would be promoted from first level, second level, third level, and so on. With each promotion, their salary would increase by a certain amount, up to the fourth-level worker. After that, they would have to take technical exams.

A fourth-level worker who passed the skills assessment and held a B-level diploma could be promoted to a technician. There were four levels of technicians, but each level required an examination. The examination was held once a year.

Above a fourth-level technician, those with an A-level diploma could take the examination for an associate technician. Becoming an associate technician was the end point for most technicians. Only associate technicians who had passed the secondary school diploma examination could take the examination for a full technician.

According to Zhan Wuya’s calculations, a talented, hands-on, and studious native worker could be promoted to an associate technician in about ten years at the fastest. As for a full technician, it would depend on their learning ability. An average worker could probably only pass the exam for a third or fourth-level technician.

Wu De looked at the whole plan and thought it was acceptable. He then said, “Has it been submitted to the Executive Committee for discussion?”

“Not yet. I’m currently soliciting opinions privately. Everyone, please give your opinions. You are in charge of all manpower, so I especially want to ask for your opinion.”

“Alright,” Wu De said, “I don’t know much about the worker grading system. But are you planning to have a one-size-fits-all approach or separate it by type of work?”

Zhan Wuya’s face showed a look of admiration, “Of course it’s by type of work.”

If it was not by type of work, and all workers were paid according to their grade, it would be too unfair to the workers in high-tech and high-risk jobs. A third-level packaging worker and a third-level lathe worker were obviously not on the same level. But technical content was not the only factor to consider. Although the stevedores on the docks had no technical content, they were engaged in heavy physical labor and needed much more food than lathe workers.

“Different types of work have different starting salary levels,” Zhan Wuya said. Of course, this was a complicated matter. It was unrealistic for Zhan Wuya or anyone else in the transmigrator group to do it. Fortunately, they had historical experience—they could consult such materials and regulations in the Grand Library and modify them according to the actual environment.

“No matter what type of work it is, the average income level of an industrial worker should at least be able to support a basic household of four.”

A worker engaged in heavy physical labor needed between 3,500 and 4,000 calories per day. If they only consumed carbohydrates, each person would need at least twenty kilograms of grain. This was equivalent to 40 yuan in their currently issued Lin’gao grain coupons.

His wife—the women of the southern farming families in ancient times were no less capable of working than men, and the women of Hainan were famous for their hard, tiring, and bitter work—would need at least fifteen kilograms of grain.

Assuming there were two dependents, calculated at twelve kilograms of grain per person per month, his salary would be 40 + 30 + 48, for a total of 118 yuan in Lin’gao grain coupons.

Of course, if this was all they had, the family could only eat to survive. However, the transmigrators’ labor policy was that women also had to work. The wages earned by women could be used for other expenses, such as buying clothes, daily necessities, and some fish and meat. If the children or the elderly in the family could also work, the income could be further increased, which would stimulate more labor to enter the market voluntarily. Life would not be so difficult—the transmigrators did not want their people to be so poor that they could not afford any consumer goods.

“When I was on the ship in the past, a comrade-in-arms encountered a problem with promotion—professional position grade restrictions. Do you understand what I mean?” Wu De said—every professional post on the ship had a maximum military rank. If you wanted to be promoted to a higher military rank, you had to change your professional post.

“We have also considered this. According to the different technical content of the work, the maximum promotion level for each type of work is different,” Zhan Wuya said. “Jobs with very low technical content do not have a technician level, let alone a technician—unless he is willing to change to another type of work…” According to Zhan Wuya’s idea, this could encourage workers to learn new technologies.

“You’re being a bit idealistic. When a worker reaches a certain age, gets married and has children, and has a heavy burden, how easy is it for them to change their profession? Will this not lead to a group of low-skilled workers lingering in the low-income group for a long time?”

“This is also inevitable,” Zhan Wuya considered and said. “We are not here to achieve equal wealth, nor are we here to build a socialist family. It is necessary to create an income gap based on ability and level.”

“Well, so we must grasp this degree and not unconsciously fall into the idea of a welfare society,” Wu De said. “The treatment cannot be too low. If it is too low, it will affect the health of the employees and the next generation of workers, and it will also affect labor efficiency; nor can it be too high. It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.”

The transmigrators could not turn stone into gold. Advanced technology did not mean that it could be directly converted into wealth. The primitive accumulation of this new country also had to rely on external plunder and internal exploitation.

Zhan Wuya suddenly felt a chill down his spine, “To be honest, I’m not quite used to it.”

“Not used to speaking so bluntly? Hehe,” Wu De laughed. “This shows one thing: we still have too much petty-bourgeois sentiment.” He added, “But we must also take good care of low-income families and provide more basic welfare. In fact, sometimes small favors are more useful than raising wages.”

“This…” Zhan Wuya couldn’t think of any small favors that could be given to the workers besides money and goods. Seeing Wu De’s confident look, he thought to himself that this was also his responsibility anyway, so he just had to do as he was told.

Wu De’s labor welfare plan was in a Holy Ship brand notebook in his pocket. In addition, there was a more specific labor system plan. His notebook was full of various key points and ideas. He would take it out to ponder whenever he had time. Although these plans could not be implemented yet due to objective conditions, the outline had gradually become clear. When the time was ripe, he would be ready to present it to the Executive Committee.

“That guy He Ma! He went to check the hygiene and didn’t come back! Does he know what I’m doing? And He Ping, he took a few days off to rest after the long voyage, and now he’s completely disappeared!” Shi Niaoren hadn’t seen them for several nights during the business study and AV watching sessions.

“Forget it, let them regret not seeing Xiao Kong’s infantry film!” he comforted himself while scooping out another lump of mixture.

“The variety of A-films is really rich, and Xiao Kong’s skills are really impressive!” Shi Niaoren recalled the grand occasion of last night’s business study nightlife while his hands and feet kept numbering the lumps of mixture.

“This is the 30th sample, the last one,” Shi Niaoren said indignantly as he examined it under the microscope. “This sample is so fucking smelly.” He then glanced at the petri dish next to him, which contained the culture specimen of the immigrant’s poop who had died that morning. He would have to check carefully for Vibrio cholerae later. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but confirm that his mask was in the proper position.

The immigrant who had died suddenly in the morning was still in the underground morgue—the temperature there was slightly lower. But it couldn’t be kept for long. Shi Niaoren had to quickly confirm whether he had died of some kind of epidemic disease. If not, there was still time to organize an autopsy at night. Otherwise, he would have to be quickly taken out and cremated—this stinking matter was also the responsibility of the health department. He sighed. He had already had a fight with the high-level officials of the Executive Committee over the matter of corpse disposal. The Executive Committee seemed to think that the sea was a natural place to dispose of corpses and suggested that he send people to Bopu to dispose of the corpses. But he had repeatedly pointed out that the health department needed a special incinerator to burn all kinds of medical waste and the deceased suspected of having infectious diseases. Now, burning them directly in an open space not only polluted the environment but also did not burn them cleanly. It was simply creating a source of infection for pathogens.