Worker Rights

A gas explosion inside the Sunjiawan mine near Fuxin, Liaoning province, killed 209 miners, with six miners still missing, according to a report from Xinhua. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao quickly issued a statement on the disaster (reported in the Peoples Daily), and dispatched State Council member Hua Jianmin to the site to meet with local officials, console the families, and determine the cause of the accident. The China Court Network reports that the State Council also established a special investigation team comprised of senior officials such as Wang Xianzheng, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), and Liaoning governor Zhang Wenyue to look into the incident.

Many foreign companies sourcing products from China have sought to have their suppliers’ factories certified by independent bodies and NGOs as meeting basic international labor and environmental standards. These programs frequently have been part of a company’s global corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. (For an overview of the CSR issues as they relate to the supply chain in China, see this 2004 statement of findings (.pdf document) by the Kenan Institute China CSR Working Group.)
Among the many certification standards, and perhaps the best known, is SA8000.

In an article posted on the Ministry of Justice Web site, author Ruan Zhanjiang discusses the increasing problem of unpaid wages for workers. The problem of wage arrears becomes especially acute before the Lunar New Year holiday begins each year. Although some government agencies and local unions have publicized the rights of migrant workers, the workers themselves continue to lose wages and take to the streets to regain them.

Ruan points out that local governments are not equipped to force employers to pay back wages, and says that governments’ failure to pay out funds for completed construction projects frequently causes employers not to pay workers. Ruan also expresses the view that Chinese courts are inadequate to deal with wage arrears, because sanctions for nonpayment are minimal. In addition, workers may lose in court and end up with nothing.

The Legislative Inspection Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional People’s Congress recently denied hearing of a bill to protect migrant workers' rights, stating that singling out migrant workers as a separate category of industrial workers would be "untimely." According to a report from Nanning, 11 legislators proposed the new bill, noting widespread abuse of migrant workers' rights, particularly the withholding of their earned wages. The Inspection Committee concluded that migrant workers are simply part of the broader industrial workforce and that designating them a separate category of workers would in fact be condescending and discriminatory. The report noted that in another 10 years, perhaps such new nomenclature might be warranted. The proposals in the bill were relayed to relevant departments as "recommendations" rather than as law.

As China’s migrant workers look forward to traveling home for the Lunar New Year festival, a perennial issue arises: whether or not they can collect their earnings. In an unusual move, the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), China's only official union federation, has begun to assist migrant workers with their back pay problems. According to an article from Asian Labour News the ACFTU has established 1,763 aid centers for legal services and job training. The Federation also plans to send 15 ACFTU official teams to towns and cities to distribute some US $4.2 million in cash and other types of aid to needy workers.

According to an article appearing in the Beijing News, the Henan Provincial Conference on Rural Affairs has decided to lift mandatory corveé labor requirements on rural residents. The measure accompanies other efforts to improve the rights of migrant workers, including directives aimed at protecting their rural property rights and barring discrimination against them. These positive developments are consistent with recent central government efforts to improve the treatment of migrants. The continued existence of corveé labor, however, shows the extent to which basic personal liberties are often absent in rural China.

Fireworks manufacturing ranks among the most dangerous jobs in China. Although Chinese government officials have been embarrassed in the past by notorious incidents such as the 2001 explosion in a school that killed dozens, a tougher approach may be on the way. After a series of deadly fireworks explosions at factories in the last two years, for example, the county magistrate in Xiangfen County, Shanxi, ordered the factory manager arrested, according to an account in Beijing News.

According to this article from the BBC Asia Pacific news service, fireworks production increases as the Lunar New Year holidays approach each year, accompanied by an increase in accidents. Small unregulated factories – sometimes in people’s homes – produce most of China’s fireworks.

According to this article from the January 11 edition of The Legal Daily, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee is concerned about the growing number of labor disputes in China which it attributes in part to economic reforms that have led to privatization of once state-owned industries and the conversion of the formerly state-employed workforce to private sector employment. The Standing Committee recommends that labor laws strike a balance between business and worker interests.
.
In other recommendations, the Standing Committee urges that labor laws and regulations clearly distinguish between cases that law courts should handle and those that labor arbitration boards should address. They also propose that employers handle cases promptly and ensure that employment contracts are legal and provide for safety, old age insurance, and medical treatment provisions.