“There is still another opportunity available for assessing and grade rating in September, I am ready to sprint toward a higher level blue collar!” He Xiaoming, Level II blue collar worker from the Equipment Workshop of the Copper Pipe BU of Zhejiang Hailiang is full of confidence for another grade promotion. In the past three years, he had been rated as a Level II blue collar, enjoyed the treatment of associate section level, and got the house purchasing subsidy from a common employee. He deeply realized that, as long as you work hard, the common industry workers in Hailiang may also enjoy excellent treatment.

System guarantee with all employees’ participation

In April, 2021, He Xiaoming bought his house in Jicheng District, and the couple got a house purchasing subsidy of RMB130,000 from Hailiang. “I got a house subsidy of RMB90,000 and my wife got a house subsidy of RMB40,000. The subsidy has something to do with our working term in Hailiang, but also with that I was rated as a Level II blue collar, so I can get more”, He Xiao Ming Said.

Level II blue collar worker as said by him is actually a specific grade in the “blue collar post eco-system construction engineering” of Hailiang (hereinafter referred to as “blue collar engineering”). Regardless of education background and seniority, as per the skill level, the assessment performance of knowledge which should be mastered and known, working performance, etc., have comprehensive rating for the employees, with the highest grade as Level I blue collar and the lowest one as Level V blue collar. Each grade has different pay and treatment. Higher grade means higher pay and higher treatment in children’s school admission, welfare house purchasing, and political status, etc. The employees listed into the “blue collar engineering” will be granted with a set of relatively complete vocational training system for industry workers to help them grow better. Besides, have dynamic management for the grade, the excellent one will be continuously promoted while the unqualified will be degraded.

Established in 1989, Hailiang Group has developed into a large international private enterprise group integrating three core fields, including education, smart manufacturing of nonferrous material and health industry, and listed into world Top 500, from a copper pipe processing plant in Zhuji. Hailiang believes that world class products require world class technicians to manufacture, which implicitly indicates the development logics that the enterprise and the employees grow together and help each other for common development.

Based on such an ideology, the “blue collar engineering” was started at the end of 2018, and promoted in 15 production bases in the world. By far, only one domestic base hasn’t been covered yet, but expects to be covered at the end of this year, while more than half of the overseas bases have been covered.

Help each other for common growth

He Xiaoming is a participant of the “blue collar engineering, as well as one of the beneficiaries.

“With the blue collar level improvement, various treatments are also improved.” However, in daily work, study and the circulation of rating participation, He Xiaoming discovers that, with his skill improvement, his confidence and sense of responsibility sense are also enhanced gradually. As told by He Xiaoming, he completed three technical improvements in the past several months. “We have one annealing process, and one material shelf has 8 semi-girders. There used to be only 4 switches, which means that one switch needs to control 2 semi-girders. Once there is fault, the production efficiency will drop by 50%.” He Xiaoming Said. After careful study, He Xiaoming found out a hidden problem of this technology, and the efficiency of the whole technology may be improved by equipping corresponding switches for each semi-girder.

Sun Wei from Anhui has even profounder feeling than He Xiaoming. He is a normal coil pipe re-winding worker of the Copper Pipe BU of Zhejiang Hailiang. In 2018, he was rated as Level II blue collar worker in the first batch of “Blue collar engineering” assessment, with his income equal to a workshop supervisor, and his children’s school admission problem is also solved. Besides, he was also selected as the representative of the 13th provincial people’s congress, and displayed the style of industry workers on the Provincial People's Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference.

More than 20 years ago, Sun Wei became a migrant worker of the society. At that time, he could never imagine that now he can have such an economic status and political status until he started to work in Hailing in 2003. “I didn’t have any skill previously, worked here and there temporarily. However, in Hailiang, I feel different. It is a place making me feel energetic to work hard.” Sun Wei said. After entering the factory, there was a master to learn from, the colleagues who did a good job got high income and were respected. With so many examples by him, Sun Wei spared no efforts, worked hard, and became a technical expert of the enterprise.

The blue collar promotion group head of Hailiang Group, Xiong Shuangkui said, after several years, the “chemistry reaction” of this set of “blue collar engineering” in the enterprise becomes more and more apparent. “In June, 2021, we had an investigation participated by more than 2000 employees, including the management staff and the frontline blue collar workers, and 97% of the interviewees indicated that they are willing to participate in the “blue collar engineering”. Xiong Shuangkui said, “as per incomplete statistics, take Hailiang Group as an example, after starting the ‘blue collar engineering’, our per capital efficiency is up by 20%, and passing rate of the products is up by 10% and the production cost is reduced significantly.”

Just because more and more front line workers, such as He Xiaoming and Sun Wei, participate in the “blue collar engineering”, they have improved themselves, and also achieved the benign development of the enterprise by increasing their contributions for the enterprises. Currently, Xiong Shuangkui and his colleagues have composed 179 standard textbooks for the “blue collar engineering”. With the continuous promotion of this engineering, their textbook library will also be continuously expanded.

“Workers should be a vocational population enjoying a relatively high social status and deserving respect.” Deputy Party secretary and chairman of the trade union federation of Hailiang Group Yao Hui said, “The objective of Hailiang is to building an evergreen enterprise, then what is its motivation in the future? What is its motivation for the upgrading? All universally believe that it lies in our employees and a high quality worker team with excellent skills.”

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