The Office of the Leading Group for Employment Promotion and Labor Protection of the State Council recently issued a notice to deploy a special action nationwide to clean up and rectify the order of the human resources market. Recently, human resources and social security departments in various regions, together with departments such as cyberspace, education, and public security, have carried out implementation and summarized a number of major typical cases of "recruitment and transfer training" fraud, illegal online job referrals, false recruitment, and employment discrimination that have been investigated and dealt with since 2025, and have made them public to the society. Relevant departments remind job seekers to be vigilant against similar job seeking traps. If they encounter any infringement of employment rights during the job search process, they can promptly report and complain to the local human resources and social security department. 'Recruitment transfer training' and false recruitment: paying money to join? Scam! The essence of 'recruitment to training' is a fraudulent criminal act committed under the guise of recruitment and training. In reality, criminals cover up their illegal purposes in various legal forms, with strong concealment and deception, and a high degree of social harm. In September 2025, job seeker Gu received a call from a media technology company in Beijing, inviting him to participate in an interview for the position of Operations Assistant. After Gu passed the interview, the company verbally promised to pay a monthly salary of 8000 yuan, but did not sign a written labor contract. Afterwards, the company induced Gu to sign a "New Media Operation Training Consulting Service Agreement" and charged a training fee of 18800 yuan, citing the requirement for practical training upon joining. Due to Gu's inability to pay, the company induced him to apply for installment loans on a small loan platform, requiring him to repay 1777 yuan per month. Gu posted a request for help on an online platform due to his inability to repay the loan. After monitoring the relevant public opinion, the public security, human resources and social security, market supervision and other departments of Chaoyang District, Beijing immediately carried out joint disposal, ordered the unit to stop related business on site, terminated the loan of Gu and refunded the fees collected. Subsequently, the Beijing public security organs conducted further investigations and comprehensively identified the criminal gang led by Sun, which specialized in high salary drainage, induced training, and loan fraud. The Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Department is imposing administrative sanctions (penalties) on illegal activities such as publishing false recruitment information involved in this case. Relevant departments remind job seekers that if they encounter situations where they have to pay for training or purchase courses before being hired, they should be vigilant, immediately stop contacting relevant units or individuals, resolutely refuse to pay or take out loans, and avoid property losses; Synchronize and save chat records, written materials, and other evidence, and promptly report to relevant departments such as public security and human resources and social security. In recent years, some illegal individuals have been using slogans such as "internal promotion within state-owned enterprises" and "direct signing of job postings" to publish false recruitment information through short video platforms, WeChat groups, and other online channels, explicitly or implicitly suggesting to job seekers that they have "connections" and that they can be hired by giving money, thereby defrauding huge amounts of money. In July 2025, the human resources and social security department of Songyuan City, Jilin Province, discovered during a special inspection that a certain human resources company had released recruitment information such as "high salary guaranteed employment" and "direct signing to state-owned enterprises" through a certain online platform. After paying for consultation, the job seeker discovered that the relevant state-owned enterprise had not commissioned the human resources company to recruit, nor had it set up relevant employment positions. The so-called "guaranteed employment" and "direct signing" were actually job fraud traps. The human resources and social security department of Songyuan City has lawfully ordered the company to rectify its illegal behavior of publishing false recruitment information within a specified period of time, refund the fees collected, and order it to stop engaging in vocational intermediary activities. Relevant departments remind job seekers to remain highly vigilant when facing "low threshold, high salary" recruitment information, carefully screen the sources of information, and be vigilant against situations such as requiring early payment of fees and frequent changes in interview locations. In case of job fraud or personal property or personal safety infringement, one should immediately report to the competent departments such as human resources and social security, public security, etc. Black intermediaries and employment discrimination: hiring without permission? Illegal! According to laws and regulations such as the Employment Promotion Law and the Interim Regulations on the Human Resources Market, engaging in vocational intermediary activities should apply for administrative licenses from the human resources and social security administrative department in accordance with the law; Those engaged in online human resources services must also prominently display their license information. In April 2025, the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Shiyan City, Hubei Province found during the inspection that a certain network limited company, without obtaining the human resources service license according to law, released enterprise recruitment information for multiple positions through online platforms and cooperation channels such as its WeChat official account "XX Convenience Circle". At the same time, the company illegally profited 14000 yuan by charging advertising and information promotion fees ranging from 200 yuan to 700 yuan to cooperative units under the guise of posting recruitment information. The Human Resources and Social Security Department of Shiyan City ordered the company to immediately stop all job intermediary services, delete all illegal recruitment information on WeChat official account, confiscate all illegal income of 14000 yuan and impose a fine of 10000 yuan. In reality, some job intermediaries have violated the law of employment discrimination by saying that "a specific registered residence registration, a specific region, or a certain ethnic minority quota is full". In March 2025, the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Department found that a human resources limited company released recruitment information through the Internet and the recruitment information column. Some of the recruitment information contained discriminatory content, restricted the employment of workers with specific registered residence registration and ethnic minorities, and violated the equal employment rights of workers. In response, the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Department has ordered the company to rectify its illegal behavior of publishing discriminatory recruitment information within a specified period of time, delete discriminatory content in the recruitment information, and impose an administrative penalty of 5000 yuan. Unpaid job testing and fake outsourcing: Avoiding the five insurances and one fund? Strictly investigate! The essence of "unpaid job testing" is that employers use false recruitment information to attract workers for illegal benefits, and use unreasonable rules and regulations or failure to sign labor contracts to infringe on the rights and interests of workers in fair employment and wage compensation. It must be resolutely cracked down on and prevented from evolving into hidden rules in the industry. At the beginning of 2025, the human resources and social security department of Chengde City, Hebei Province received multiple complaints about a certain labor dispatch service company's illegal behavior of "unpaid trial work". After investigation, the company involved illegally set a "unpaid trial period" of 3 to 7 days under the pretext of pre job training and assessment, as well as adaptive job testing, taking advantage of job seekers' eagerness to find employment. After the trial period expires, the enterprise will dismiss the employee and refuse to pay the labor remuneration during the trial period for reasons such as "failing the assessment and not adapting to the position". The human resources and social security department of Chengde City quickly intervened in the investigation and ordered him to immediately stop the "trial job" behavior, pay off the wages and remuneration owed to the workers, and rectify the internal illegal rules and regulations within a time limit in accordance with the law. The labor laws and regulations such as the Labor Law and the Labor Contract Law clearly stipulate the legal employment responsibilities of employers. In reality, some employers package traditional job positions as flexible employment or platform employment, and some even require workers to register as individual industrial and commercial households, in order to avoid the main responsibility of employment and violate labor security laws and regulations. In August 2025, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Changsha City, Hunan Province, discovered during public opinion monitoring that a hotel management company in Hunan Province had forced its employees to register as individual business owners in order to avoid the "five insurances and one fund", and immediately launched a case investigation. It is found that the company requires employees to register as self-employed businesses on an Internet platform, sign a "tripartite service agreement" with the company and the platform, and the platform will settle labor remuneration on behalf of the company. As a result, the company transformed its normal employment form into a civil cooperative relationship between the company and individual businesses, concealed employment behavior, avoided employment responsibilities, and seriously infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of workers. The human resources and social security department of Changsha City orders the enterprises involved to immediately rectify their illegal employment practices and sign written labor contracts with the workers in accordance with the law; Simultaneously issue a compliant business proposal to relevant online platforms, requesting the cessation of the implementation of illegal employment patterns. At present, the involved enterprises and platforms have been rectified in place. The relevant department reminds that if workers encounter such situations, they should keep evidence materials such as contract agreements, attendance and work records, payment vouchers, chat records, etc., and promptly file complaints with the human resources and social security department. According to laws and regulations such as the Labor Contract Law, the Interim Provisions on Labor Dispatch, and the Implementation Measures for Administrative Licensing of Labor Dispatch, operating labor dispatch business shall apply for administrative licensing in accordance with the law; If an employer uses workers in the form of labor dispatch under the guise of contracting, outsourcing, etc., it should be recognized as engaging in labor dispatch activities. In March 2025, the human resources and social security department of Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, discovered during a special inspection that, starting from 2023, a certain enterprise management consulting company had signed a cooperation agreement with a textile company under the name of "business outsourcing" without obtaining a labor dispatch license. The textile company was responsible for providing factory buildings, machinery, and raw materials, as well as providing pre job training for new employees and directly verifying work results and quality. At the same time, the on-site management personnel are also former employees of the textile company, and their management processes and job responsibilities are completely consistent with their work in the textile company. The company is only responsible for paying salaries and social security contributions to so-called outsourced employees after receiving monthly payments from a textile company. In response to this, the human resources and social security department of Changzhou City has made administrative sanctions and penalties in accordance with the law, ordering the company to immediately stop operating labor dispatch services, and imposing a fine of 40000 yuan on the company for operating labor dispatch services without permission. The relevant departments remind workers to be alert to illegal labor dispatch traps disguised under the name of "labor outsourcing", pay attention to keeping work permits, written contracts, correspondence emails, chat records and other evidence materials, and promptly file complaints with the human resources and social security department. (Looking into the New Era)