Re-employment of retired personnel

  Wang Qiuhuo drove an American Jeep, taking Zhu Tiejun and Lin Zhenhua to a small restaurant. The three of them walked in, Zhu Tiejun ordered two dishes, then called for four liang of wine, with Lin Zhenhua having two liang each. Lin Zhenhua secretly rejoiced, originally Zhu Tiejun wasn't that crazy about drinking, otherwise he would have had to drink even more.

  Wang Qiu Huo was about to drive, so he naturally couldn't drink. Lin Zhenhua and Zhu Tiejun took small sips, drinking for a while, until Zhu Tiejun slowly calmed down his emotions, saying to himself: "Well, I've thought it through, this is like when an old soldier retires from the army, they come in at 18 years old, by their 20s, you have to let them go back and get married, live their life. Although it's hard to cultivate a good soldier, you also have to let them retire. Workers are the same, those who should leave, no matter what, can't be kept."

  Lin Zhenhua said, "That's what they say, but someone like Master Peng Gang, who is only 49 years old and in his prime, has to retire early because of the child substitution policy. It's really a shame."

  "What if we don't let them retire? The recruitment quota for the year is limited, and there are also various connections to be arranged for people to come in. When it's our own employees' children, only three or four can be solved in a year. We have more than 100 unemployed children, if we don't take the route of replacement, when can we arrange them all?"

  "But when these masters leave, many things really can't be done." Lin Zhenhua said, he is not a deputy director of the technical department for nothing, in these few months, he has already become quite familiar with the technical situation of Hanhua Factory, and knows that many of these workers have unique skills, among the younger generation, there are really no one can replace them.

  "Isn't that so, like Master Sun Changyuan from the metalworking shop, a seventh-level fitter, all our centrifugal pumps were assembled by him. Once he leaves, the production of centrifugal pumps will be in trouble." said Zhu Tiejun.

  Lin Zhenhua knows that the fitter is one of the oldest occupations in the industrial field. In the past 100 years, the development of large-scale machinery industry has eliminated many traditional manual operations, but the role of fitters can never be replaced. Even until the era when seven-axis, nine-axis and eleven-axis CNC machining centers were invented, some of the most precise molds, measuring tools, guide rails, and valve seats still need to be processed by excellent fitters in a manual way.

  At the Hanhua factory, there was a somewhat legendary story: A fertilizer plant in a certain place purchased a centrifugal pump produced by Hanhua Factory. At first, it worked very well. Later, the maintenance worker of this fertilizer plant disassembled the centrifugal pump and did some maintenance work. After they reassembled the centrifugal pump to its original state, they found that the noise of the machine had increased by more than double, which was frightening to hear.

  At a meeting in the conference hall, the director of this fertilizer plant mentioned this matter and had some reservations about the product quality of Hanhua Factory. At that time, the director of Hanhua Factory was also present at the meeting, and as soon as he heard this, his face fell. Upon returning to the factory, he immediately dispatched a fitter to go to that fertilizer plant to inspect the machine's condition.

  After the fitter arrived at the fertilizer plant, he had the other party's maintenance worker disassemble the machine again. Then, he personally went forward, lifted a cylinder body out of the machine, and put it back in place. After that, he had the maintenance worker reassemble the machine for testing. With just one lift and one drop, the ear-piercing noise miraculously disappeared after the machine was turned on.

  This is the master craftsman Sun Changyuan, mentioned by Zhu Tiejun. To outsiders, it seems simple to lift and put down, but in fact, there are many skills involved. If the center of gravity of a high-speed rotating device is biased, it will cause vibration, noise and other phenomena. Sun Changyuan's skill lies in his ability to judge the position of the center of gravity by simply touching it with his hand, and then find a suitable angle to assemble the parts.

  This technique is not something that anyone can learn if they want to. To master it, one must have rich experience and unique insight. Those who possess both are the most excellent workers.

  However, such workers had to leave their jobs ahead of time in order to make way for their children.

  "Director Zhu, I think that for people like Peng Gang and Sun Changyuan, the factory can agree to their retirement, but later we can still consider rehiring them." Lin Zhenhua suggested.

  "Rehiring? What does it mean?" Zhu Tiejun was somewhat puzzled.

  "It's these people who, although retired, are still needed by the factory, so they arrange for them to be re-employed and come back to work at the factory." Lin Zhenhua said that this way of rehiring is very common in later generations' research institutions. Some old professors retire, but the institute will rehire them and let them continue to contribute their remaining energy. Lin Zhenhua's mentor, Yao Heliang, is already over 70 years old, but he is still in good health, so not only was he rehired, but he can also supervise graduate students.

  "How is this possible, who pays their salary?" Zhu Tiejun shook his head and said, "After these people retired due to illness, they definitely won't stay at home. Maybe they went to help some township enterprises. Although the money from township enterprises is little, it's still money."

  "Our factory can also offer money," said Lin Zhenhua. "Rehiring is to pay as formally employed, I think, for people like Master Peng, if the treatment in the factory is similar, they will definitely be more willing to return to work in the factory and not go to small town factories. Those small town factories I have also been in contact with are all producing some small agricultural machinery, which is not as good as what our Hanhua Factory produces."

  Zhu Tiejun said, "Your idea is pretty good, but where will the factory get the money from? All the expenses of the factory are regulated and there is no such expense item as re-employment."

  "This is a troublesome matter." Lin Zhenhua only then realized that he had been too naive. In the early 1980s, there were many restrictions on state-owned enterprises, unlike later times when mechanisms were more flexible. To hire a retired employee, at least approval from the personnel department was required, and the trouble in between was almost unimaginable.

  Zhu Tiejun sighed: "Our enterprise is like a child bride, even worse than a child bride. A child bride only has one mother-in-law, but our enterprise has dozens of mothers-in-law on top, anyone can control you, and you can't move freely. If I were the leader, I would let the enterprise think for itself, as long as you do a good job in production and don't violate national policies, you can do whatever you want."

  Another folk economist, Lin Zhenhua secretly admired. In fact, at that time, there were many state-owned enterprise leaders like Zhu Tiejun who had such ideas. The famous "Director Qiao Takes Office" reflected this desire to implement a factory director responsibility system. In September of that year, the State Council approved and forwarded the National Economic Commission's report on the pilot work of expanding enterprise autonomy and future opinions. It proposed that from 1981 onwards, the work of expanding enterprise autonomy would be fully promoted in state-owned industrial enterprises, giving enterprises greater autonomy in personnel, finance, production, supply, and sales. The report stated that pilot enterprises had the right to decide their own organizational structure and personnel appointments and removals of middle-level cadres and below, and had the right to dismiss employees based on labor discipline. Compared with today's state-owned enterprise mechanisms, the expansion of enterprise autonomy at that time was simply a small-scale experiment, but it was an important step forward.

  "Director Zhu, we can't wait for national policy matters. I was thinking, is it possible for us to find a way to solve this problem within the scope of what the factory can decide?" Lin Zhenhua said.

  Zhu Tiejun raised his wine glass and looked at Lin Zhenhua. A faint smile suddenly appeared on his face: "What's up, Little Lin? Got another one of your clever ideas?"

  Lin Zhenhua repeatedly shouted grievances: "Director Zhu, you can't look at me like this, can you? It's as if I'm full of conspiracy."

  Zhu Tiejun said: "It's not a conspiracy, you have many open schemes. I think your ideas are very active, tell me, what can we do to keep these teachers from leaving our factory?"

  Lin Zhenhua hesitated for a moment and said: "Director Zhu, I actually have an idea, but I don't know if it's appropriate."

  "Go on."

  "Our factory is a state-owned enterprise, with very strict regulations. However, our labor service company is a large collective, with relatively more autonomy in operation. Can't we hire these masters back in the name of the labor service company and have the labor service company pay them the re-employment fee?"

  Zhu Tiejun thought for a moment and said, "What you said is not a bad idea, but I'm afraid it won't pass. The purpose of our labor service company is to provide employment opportunities for young people in the factory who are waiting for work. It doesn't matter if the labor service company pays wages to these young people, and no one will say anything. But if we also bring in retired workers, I'm afraid we won't be able to get through the relevant department's approval."

  "Isn't it a collectively owned enterprise that is autonomously managed by the factory itself? What right does the Light Industry Bureau have to intervene?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  Zhu Tiejun said, "You don't understand this. The labor service companies of various factories are all the same. They claim to be independent accounting enterprises, but in fact, they can't make any money and rely on the parent factory for support. Without the approval of the Light Industry Bureau, how could we transfer profits to the labor service company? This time, Peng Gang's retirement was not well received by the Light Industry Bureau. If we had completed their retirement procedures and then they came back to continue receiving salaries, the Light Industry Bureau would definitely hold us accountable."

  "If labor service companies can make money on their own, does the Labor Bureau care?"

  "If we could make money, the labor hall might not care about us," said Zhu Tiejun. "But our labor service company only makes ice sticks in summer and does greening work in spring, what can we earn?"

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and said, "Director Zhu, I have an idea. I want to contract the labor service company and guarantee that it will become a money-making machine within a year. Can the factory agree?"