Spending on official gift giving and dining and drinking at the public's expense were less conspicuous during this year's Spring Festival holiday, but the traditional year-end payments and welfare provided grassroots employees were also not as noticeable, which is quite worrying, says an article in Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts:

The public has widely welcomed the more frugal atmosphere in government departments and State-owned companies since the leadership introduced an eight-point code to cut bureaucracy and extravagance. These eight measures were supposed to cut the "abnormal welfare" some officials were enjoying, but the implementation of the policy should not hurt the welfare of ordinary citizens.

However, some State-owned enterprises and institutions have failed to fully grasp the essence of the policy and have deprived their employees of the holiday care and subsidies that was expected. Even some private companies have put a stop to the welfare they normally provide their employees.

The battle against corruption should not undermine the basic interests of workers, since one of the ultimate purposes of the anti-corruption fight is to increase people's well-being. The normal welfare of all kinds of employees, instead of being cut, should be increased to a certain degree and its range expanded according to actual condition.

Therefore, this mistake should be corrected in time and policymakers should encourage the distribution of normal welfare to employees. Meanwhile, relevant departments could establish a special welfare distribution system targeted at those on low incomes. For example, public money could be used to give those on low incomes a "red envelope" at the Spring Festival, which, as part of the redistribution of wealth, could effectively narrow the wealth gap and promote social harmony.