Worker Rights

The Ministry of Labor issued regulations on June 15 saying that workers who have not signed labor contracts can still obtain their back wages. Recognizing that workers who have not been given work contracts have difficulty proving their work record, the Ministry listed a number of different kinds of proof to be used in place of a work contract. Work unit records of wages and social security payments, worker identifications, service card identifications, credential check lists, and notes from workers are among the documents acceptable as proof of work performed. If no paper evidence exists, inspectors can consult fellow workers and other employees, according to the regulations.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights recommended that the Chinese government "abolish the use of forced labor as a corrective measure" and "allow workers to form independent trade unions outside of the structure of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions," according to the China Labour Bulletin. The Committee’s recommendations responded to the Chinese government’s recent progress report on these issues. The Committee, which comprises 18 independent experts, also recommended that the Chinese government improve its implementation of Chinese labor laws to eliminate long work hours, insufficient breaks, and hazardous working conditions. During its deliberations, the Committee also asked whether or not the Chinese government intends to ratify more of the ILO's 18 Conventions. The National People’s Congress has ratified two conventions on child labor and one on equal remuneration for women and men.

Official claims that the government has recovered virtually all amounts owed to migrant workers for the year 2003 and before were challenged by migrant workers recounting their personal circumstances in a Beijing News interview published May 26. Some government reports boast very high rates of recovery of wage arrears – for example, the Chinese government announced in an April 21 Xinhua article that it had retrieved 99 percent of the total officially-known migrant worker arrears before 2003. But the construction workers interviewed in the Beijing News article said that the high settlement rate is hard to believe. Most workers, they said, only received part of their back pay. One worker had to beg for his past wages, which were as much as four months overdue. Another worker said that workers encounter three types of government attitudes when trying to collect back pay.

A Chinese government investigation into the Sunjiawan mine disaster determined that careless maintenance and leaking gas caused the explosion, according to the Wall Street Journal. 214 miners died in the blast. The Deputy Director of the State Administration for Work Safety said that workers had failed to turn off the power during cable maintenance, in violation of safety rules. In addition, gas monitoring equipment was not working properly.

The National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPC-SC) selected five vice-chairmen to inspect safety measures in coal mines, according to the April 29 edition of the Legal Daily. The five senior NPC-SC leaders will travel to Shandong, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and Jilin between May 10 and June 10. The five are Li Tieying, a former Politburo member; Wang Zhaoguo, currently on the Politburo; Ismail Asmat, a State Councilor and long-serving NPC member representing China’s minorities; Cheng Siwei, a science and chemistry specialist; and Xiu Jialu, Chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy.

A court in Nanping, Fujian province, imposed prison terms of six months to one year on the officers of a real estate company for failure to pay a construction contractor who then failed to pay workers, according to the Ministry of Justice Web site. The construction company could not pay the workers because the real estate company failed to deposit money into the construction project fund. While other employers may have faced criminal charges for withholding wages, this seems to be the first public report of a third party being held criminally responsible. In this case, the real estate company was also required to pay an extra 350,000 yuan ($42,288) into the construction fund.

Coal miners should be given a larger role in promoting coal mine safety, according to a recent article in the China Youth Daily (CYD). Although many recent Chinese press articles have advocated new safety laws and increased inspections, the CYD article goes much farther by advocating that coal miners be given the right to refuse to go into a coal pit that they consider dangerous.

The article's authors argue that government efforts to improve the quantity and quality of coal mine technicians and inspectors would do little to reduce coal mine accidents. Technicians and inspectors have little power compared to coal mine managers, whose chief goal is profit. On the other hand, the authors say, coal miners would be unlikely to gamble with their own lives when they could choose whether or not a mine should be shut down because of poor safety conditions.

Central and local governments continue to find it hard to ensure that employers pay wages owed to migrant manufacturing workers fully and promptly. At the beginning of 2005, Premier Wen Jiaobao issued regulations imposing fines on work units that withhold wages, pay less than the minimum wage, or fail to keep honest time sheets, reports the Southern Daily. Officials would impose fines and lift the licenses of labor recruitment brokers who cheat workers.

On April 1, the Guangdong provincial government followed suit, implementing its wage payment regulations, as reported on the Ministry of Justice Web site. Provincial officials also cautioned work units to control not only the wages of their own employees, but also those of subcontractors.