I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 681 Government-Enterprise Collaboration: Breaking the Technological Barrier

Fang Qingye ate lunch at the bank's cafeteria. After lunch, there was still some time before work. As usual, Fang Qingye didn't like staying at the office, so she went downstairs for a walk on the street.

Today I went to the old street.

After several years of rapid development, Nanxin County has seen a very fast pace of urban construction. Walking on the wide streets, you see tall buildings on both sides and a constant flow of traffic, giving it the feel of a metropolis.

However, Fang Qingye still prefers the old street, with its numerous ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, featuring blue bricks and gray tiles, flying eaves and upturned corners, exuding a simple and elegant charm.

The autumn sun shines on the old street. A person strolls along the street, greets an acquaintance, and enjoys a leisurely and carefree time.

As Fang Qingye passed by a coffee shop, she noticed a delivery rider in a blue Ele.me uniform standing at the door, frowning at his phone and repeatedly swiping his finger across the screen, as if he had encountered a problem with the operation.

Fang Qingye glanced at it as she passed by and recognized that the order details page was stuck, a common minor problem with the app.

After seeing the rider try to refresh several times without success, he suggested, "Sir, try force quitting and then restarting."

The rider hesitated for a moment, then did as instructed. After the app restarted, it worked normally. He breathed a sigh of relief, looked up, and nodded to Fang Qingye: "Thanks. This thing always seems to malfunction."

"You're welcome. It seems the app still isn't well-made."

Fang Qingye responded, her gaze sweeping over the old thermos hanging on the other person's handlebars and the worn-out phone case.

The rider looked to be in his forties, with the marks of years of sun and wind on his face, but he moved quite nimbly. As he confirmed the order address, he muttered to himself, "I need to deliver this order quickly, it's a long way."

Fang Qingye became interested and casually asked, "What's the unit price like now?"

"That's just how it is." The rider put away his phone and sighed. "If there are a lot of orders, I can earn more; if there are few orders, I can rest. It all depends on the platform's order allocation and luck."

He paused as if remembering something, "But I heard they're going to do a pilot program in Jinghai. If they can really pay social security for us, then I'll accept the deductions every month."

"Social security? You care about that?" Fang Qingye asked.

"How could I not care?" The rider straddled his electric scooter and looked Fang Qingye up and down. "Young man, judging from your appearance, you work in an office, right? In a government department?"

"From the bank," Fang Qingye said truthfully.

“That’s a secure job, guaranteed by drought or flood, and you’ll have a pension when you retire. But what about us? We have nothing! We’re older now, and we can’t work as hard as young people. The worst thing is falling or getting hurt; if we end up in the hospital for months, all our work will be for nothing. Having some security gives us peace of mind. To be honest, I don’t dare to think about pensions; I’ll be satisfied as long as we have some medical and work injury insurance.”

Before Fang Qingye could reply, he glanced at the time on his phone and said, "I'm done chatting, I have to go. If we keep talking, this order will go overtime." With that, he turned the ignition, and the electric scooter emitted a soft hum.

Before leaving, he turned back and smiled at Fang Qingye, saying, "With that, at least it's a proper guarantee, and I can work for another two years if I keep running."

Fang Qingye stood there, watching the blue electric car merge into the traffic.

The rider's words were calm, without complaints or excitement, only a calm calculation and pragmatic expectation based on the need for survival.

After passing the green leaves below, he returned to the same spot. As he walked along the road, thinking about what had just happened, he took out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

"Mayor Hu, this is Fang Qingye. I would like to come to Jinghai tomorrow morning to report to you on the progress of the pilot project negotiations."

"Hehe, I knew you were coming. Okay, tomorrow at ten o'clock, I have some time, just come over."

"Okay, I'll be there on time." The next morning, Fang Qingye arrived at Hu Huaiwen's office as agreed.

"President Fang, please have a seat," Hu Huaiwen greeted him warmly, and then had his secretary pour him some tea before sitting down on the sofa next to him.

"I heard from Director Zhou's report that the negotiations between the two sides didn't go very smoothly, right?" Hu Huaiwen said.

"Yes, our company's General Manager Deng also gave me a detailed report on the negotiation process, and there was a significant difference in the positions of both sides."

Hu Huaiwen nodded: "After all, we are all feeling our way across the river. The government has its own considerations and concerns, and you have your own demands, President Fang. Since you are here, please speak frankly about your views."

"Okay, Mayor Hu, let me tell you something first. Yesterday after lunch, I was taking a walk in the old street of the county town and met a food delivery rider. We chatted for a bit."

Fang Qingye then told Hu Huaiwen about her chance encounter with the middle-aged rider and their conversation.

"Actually, I think the arguments and bargaining between our two sides at the negotiating table are all aimed at resolving the specific medical expenses, workers' compensation rates, and basic living security for an ordinary delivery rider after retirement. If both sides start from this point, what problem can't be solved?"

"Rules are rigid, but people are flexible. I think we should try to understand the spirit behind those policies and regulations, rather than mechanically implementing the rules. We should make policies and regulations serve people, rather than turning people into slaves of policies and regulations."

Hu Huaiwen listened in silence for a long time before saying to Fang Qingye, "I understand what you mean, President Fang. I will talk to Director Zhou and the others. Don't be bound by certain rules and regulations; let's talk about solving practical problems."

"That's great! I'll tell President Deng and the others too, and we'll talk about resolving the issue!" Fang Qingye said happily.

The two didn't talk for long, only about forty minutes. After leaving Hu Huaiwen's office, Fang Qingye didn't linger in the city but took a car back to Nanxin.

On the way, he called Deng Ye and briefly told her about his conversation with Hu Huaiwen.

"Prepare yourselves to restart the talks!"

"Ok."

The talks resumed the following morning in the office of the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. This time the atmosphere was much more relaxed, and the other side was no longer high-profile. Instead, they negotiated to resolve the differences and issues one by one.

Neither side insisted on a single urban employee social security scheme. After several rounds of arduous negotiations, an unprecedented breakthrough was achieved:
Option A (Preferred): For eligible riders, Ele.me encourages and assists them to participate in urban employee social insurance, with the company bearing most of the cost.

Option B (Inclusive): For riders who are unable to immediately participate in employee social insurance for various reasons (including those whose information is yet to be verified), relying on the "Occupational Injury Protection for New Business Employees" pilot program newly launched by Jinghai City, Ele.me will fully fund the protection fees for them, providing protection similar to work injury insurance.

Option C (Transitional): For the very few riders whose information has serious flaws and is difficult to sort out in the short term, the "Rider Care Fund" established by Ele.me will provide temporary accidental injury protection during the information correction process.

This means that during the pilot period, no rider in Jinghai will be excluded from the support system due to historical issues; there will always be a solution to cover them.

Meanwhile, the municipal human resources department opened up some anonymized data interfaces for social insurance enrollment of flexible employment personnel to assist in verifying the authenticity of riders' identity information.

The Citizen Identity Information Center under the Municipal Public Security Bureau, while ensuring absolute data security, provided more authoritative comparison support for Ele.me's multi-factor authentication system, greatly improving the accuracy of the authentication.

The two parties finally reached a draft agreement on September 23. After being approved by the Standing Committee of Jinghai City and the board of directors of Ele.me, it will take effect on November 1.

In Jinghai City, the Standing Committee quickly approved the implementation plan after discussion, but Ele.me's board of directors encountered some trouble.

Shencheng.

(End of this chapter)