Trainee), referred to as MT, is an imported product and a special project with the main goal of "cultivating future leaders of the company". Some domestic enterprises also call it "reserve cadres". As a rapid training method of management talents, management trainees help to enhance the attractiveness of enterprises to talents and maintain the lasting competitive advantage of organizations. Therefore, they are favored by many multinational companies. Then, during the training period, do management trainees receive training from the company or work for the company? Simply put, are they training or working? In practice, the resulting labor disputes are constantly emerging.

Typical case:

In the summer of 2005, Siemens Automation and Drive Group started a project called "Sales" in China.

100

"The trainee program provides two-year training for fresh college students. The goal is to train them into sales engineers in the automation industry, but after two years of training, they must work for Siemens for three years, otherwise they will be compensated for the so-called "training fee" of up to 300 thousand yuan.

In the summer of 2007, when the training expired, Siemens issued labor contracts to these students, intending to establish labor relations between the two sides. However, some trainees sent to Siemens think that the project is called "training" but actually "work" and are unwilling to sign labor contracts to serve Siemens. Jia Peng (pseudonym) is one of the management trainees.

Jia Peng signed a two-year labor contract with Beijing Foreign Enterprise Human Resources Service Co., Ltd. Nanjing Branch on July 6, 2005, and was sent to work in Siemens Beijing Branch and Shanghai Branch. July 2005 1 1, signed a training agreement with Siemens and transferred to Siemens for "sales".

100 "training plan. On June 30th, 2007, Jia Peng was unwilling to sign a labor contract with Siemens after the labor contract with the dispatching company expired. Siemens issued a notice on August 20th, demanding that Jia Peng pay a penalty of more than 300,000 yuan. On September 6th of the same year, Siemens sued Jia Peng to Shanghai Pudong New Area Labor Dispute Arbitration Committee, demanding that Jia Peng pay a penalty of more than 300,000 yuan.

Referee's result:

The Arbitration Commission of Pudong New Area held that Jia Peng was a labor dispatch worker, and the employer was not Siemens, which did not meet the qualification of establishing liquidated damages stipulated in rules of shanghai labor contract, so it did not support Siemens' request. Finally, the arbitration commission ruled that Siemens lost the case.

Case study:

Schultz, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, found that only from the perspective of natural resources, material capital and labor force, all the reasons for the improvement of productivity could not be explained, but the knowledge and ability of people as the transformation form of capital and wealth were the decisive reasons for social progress. However, the acquisition of human knowledge and ability is not cost-free, and it can only be formed through investment, and training is an important form of such investment.

Training is an organized management warning of knowledge transfer, skill transfer, standard transfer and information transfer. According to different classification standards, training can be divided into long-term training and short-term training. According to the training methods, it can be divided into full-time training, half-time training and full-time training. According to the provisions of Article 22 of the Labor Contract Law, if an employer provides special training fees for laborers and provides them with professional and technical training, it may conclude an agreement with the laborers to stipulate the service period.

There are two situations that strictly limit the agreed service period, namely, special training fees and professional and technical training, that is, double majors. However, there is no further legal provision on what is professional and technical training.

In this case, the arbitration commission actually avoided the focus of the dispute, did not decide whether it belonged to training or work, but rejected Siemens' request from the main point of view. However, as far as the case of Siemens management trainees is concerned, employers and employees have two completely different views: employers and employees think it is work and employers think it is training.

Labor is considered as work.

The labor side, that is, the employee side, thinks that the name of the project is "training" but it is actually "work", which means that the workload is large and there is not much money. Trainees receive "training" only after the signing of the training agreement, Siemens arranged a month for all new employees.

Training courses are mostly about the introduction of the company and its products. This should be the company's obligation, not a special training opportunity, not to mention spending so much money. After that, most of the students' work is to provide technical support for Siemens' telephone hotline, as well as to prepare the exhibition for Siemens, provide on-site technical services and provide technical support for the project.

Management thinks it's training.

The company, that is, the management thinks it is training and scientific arrangement. The company's view is mainly based on the following two reasons: (1) All courses, including product knowledge, technical knowledge and even soft ability training, are for sales.

100 this project is tailor-made; (2) During the whole process, students leave their posts and have exams at every stage. The company's assessment is not the workload, but the learning results. These activities of management trainees belong to the practical training agreed in the agreement.

Whether it is work or training, it needs certain judgment standards.

Because the skills formed by training are personal, their ownership can only belong to the workers. However, in this investment activity, enterprises are investors of human capital. Although it is impossible to obtain the ownership of skills, enterprises should enjoy the right to return on investment, that is, the right to use skills for a certain period of time, which is the theoretical source of the service period agreement in the Labor Contract Law. However, not only this kind of management trainee project has caused labor disputes, but also many enterprises in practice send their employees to work in affiliated enterprises abroad, but they call it sending them abroad for training and agreeing on the service period with their employees. Then, can this kind of training be recognized as the professional and technical training mentioned in the Labor Contract Law? If the employee violates the service period based on this training, do you need to pay liquidated damages? Is it training or work? How to distinguish?

The author believes that judging whether it is work or training should be based on whether employees' activities in the company constitute a part of the whole business activities or whether they are receiving a service. According to this standard, the management of trainees' work and sending them overseas are all part of the enterprise's business activities, not training, but work. In addition, from a strategic point of view, training is an investment activity for employees to improve labor productivity and personal satisfaction with their career, and directly and effectively serve the production and operation of the organization. The job of employees is to exchange labor remuneration for enterprises, and it is not an investment activity for enterprises to pay labor remuneration to workers.