Worker Rights
A teacher in Shenqiao village, Henan province, recruited 84 female students from her school in July to work in a can factory in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, according to an August 10 article from Beijing Evening News. The students ranged in age from 12 to 16 years old. According to the Beijing Evening News report, the teacher told the students that they would work eight hours a day and that food, lodging, and transportation would be provided. Students discovered harsh working conditions on arrival, and four students eventually escaped from the factory to alert their parents. Authorities rescued the remaining children. Two children were injured during their time at the factory, according to the report. The Beijing Evening News report did not disclose whether or not the teacher was detained, charged, or otherwise punished.
The China Economic Times, a State Council-sponsored publication, criticized a decision by the Shanghai local people's congress (LPC) to deny two migrant observers to an LPC session full status as representatives, according to a January 17 editorial reprinted on the People's Daily Web site. The editorial asserted that the decision provided insufficient representation for the interests of Shanghai's migrant population. On January 15, the Shanghai LPC allowed for the first time two migrant workers from Jiangsu to attend a session of the Shanghai LPC as observers. Whether the LPC intends that these two migrant workers serve as permanent observers is unclear.
Shenzhen authorities have tightened household registration (hukou) rules governing migrants, according to articles in the Beijing News, South China Morning Post, and on the Shenzhen municipal government Web site. Migrants who do not qualify for a local hukou usually cannot obtain public services such as health care and schooling for their children on an equal basis with registered residents.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Services (MOLSS) has issued a migrant rights handbook (2005 edition) that says that MOLSS will not require migrants to obtain a work registration card in their place of origin before they seek jobs in urban areas, according to a September 26 Xinhua article. The requirement to do so had been in place since 1994, and limited migrant employment prospects and allowed local authorities the discretion to charge migrants additional fees, according to a September 26 article published on the Yangcheng Evening News Web site.
A Jiangsu court awarded compensation to the family of a migrant holding a rural hukou (household registration) who was killed in a traffic accident, using the same standards used to calculate compensation amounts for victims holding urban hukou, according to a February 16 China Court article. The decision contrasts with other cases in which parties to court cases have applied lower compensation standards for individuals who hold rural hukou but reside in urban areas. It also contrasts with appellate court rulings that have reversed decisions similar to that of the Jiangsu court.
The Changsha Intermediate People's Court reduced by more than 50 percent the personal injury award to the family of a woman killed in a traffic accident because the woman held a rural hukou (household registration), according to a February 14 Beijing News article.
Chinese labor officials said that government efforts to expand worker’s compensation insurance programs will focus on providing coverage to migrant workers, according to an April 8 Beijing News article. Worker’s compensation insurance programs in China cover about 70 million Chinese workers, out of a total labor force of nearly 800 million. Labor officials note that lack of coverage is particularly serious for workers laboring in the industries of the Pearl River Delta, which employ large numbers of migrant workers.
Teachers at a school in Shaanxi province arranged for a total of about 600 students to be employed in an electronics factory in Dongguan city, Guangdong province, according to an April 12 report (in Chinese) in Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper. At the time of the report, more than 240 students were working on the factory's assembly lines up to 14 hours a day under the arrangement, which was called "practical training." Although Chinese law permits vocational students to work as interns, they must be between 16 and 18 years old. Some of the students working at the factory were not yet 16, according to the report.
The Chinese government will take "compulsory measures" to promote employer participation in on-the-job injury insurance for migrant workers, according to a September 9 article in the China Youth Daily (CYD). By the end of July 2006, 18.71 million migrant workers nationwide were covered by the insurance, according to the article. As of April 2006, 87 million workers overall had such insurance, according to a June 23 Legal Daily article. The government plans to expand coverage to over 140 million people by the year 2010, the articles reported. The CYD article did not detail how the government plans to compel employer participation. A national regulation effective in 2004 mandates that all employers have injury insurance for their employees.
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) began a campaign in March 2006 to establish union branches in foreign enterprises doing business in China, according to an April 1 Asia Times report.