Worker Rights
The Henan High People's Court (HPC) issued an opinion in June that requires courts to use urban compensation standards for personal injury cases involving qualified rural migrants living in cities, according to a June 23 Xinhua article (in Chinese). Article 15 of the opinion provides that compensation for injured rural migrants who have a "regular place of residence in the city" and whose "main source of income is earned in the city" must be calculated using the same standards as for urban residents.
Hundreds of citizens rioted in Guiyang city, Guizhou province, after a migrant worker lacking a temporary residence permit was beaten on July 10, according to a July 13 Guizhou Metropolitan Daily (GMD) article reprinted on the Xinhua Web site, and an Associated Press article posted on the Washington Post Web site based on the same GMD report.
The Ministry of Communications, which oversees China's transportation sector, instructed its provincial-level departments to finish resolving migrant workers' claims for unpaid wages from work on transportation projects by the end of 2006, according to a June 28 Ministry circular posted on the central government's Web site. The Ministry circular responds to a 2004 State Council decree to resolve all migrant worker wage arrears that have resulted from unpaid debt on government projects. The deadline to conclude payment is December 2006. As of April 19, the Ministry claimed it had resolved 92 percent of the debt claims on transportation projects, a slightly higher rate than for the construction sector as a whole.
Provincial governments in China are reluctant to review their minimum wage levels every two years, despite a Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS) provision requiring such review, according to a May 9 editorial published on the China Daily Web site. Provincial officials fear that higher minimum wages will make companies relocate manufacturing facilities to provinces where wages are lower, according to the editorial. The editorial writer adds that, since China is not ready to have market forces determine wage levels, "the central government should take the lead to ensure [that] the workers are reasonably paid." In addition, the writer advocates that the central government should develop a "more clearly defined methodology for the calculation of the minimum wage level to ensure it is not artificially low," and should also monitor compliance by local governments.
The Ministry of Health implemented its 2006 Rural Migrant Worker Work Plan according to a May 16 announcement on the Ministry of Health Web site. The plan’s goals include preventing and controlling the spread of AIDS among rural migrant workers and improving infectious disease monitoring capabilities in large urban areas with migrant workers. The plan also seeks to raise the immunization rate among the children of migrant workers and improve workplace health and safety conditions for migrants.
Chinese officials and scholars criticized the failure of Chinese labor laws to protect workers in press reports from April and May 2006. Li Qi, a labor economics professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, said the failure of China's labor laws to protect workers results from collusion between government officials and private business owners, according to an April 3 China Youth Daily article (English translation in the China Labour Bulletin, April 18, 2006). "Due to the biased economic policies adopted by some local governments," he said, "many private company owners enjoy privileges which exceed legal restrictions." Professor Li cited the coal mine industry as an example that illustrates how collusion between public officials and private investors threatens workers' lives by reducing the effectiveness of the central government’s mine safety policies.
Imprisoned labor leader Li Wangyang becomes eligible for parole on May 6, after having served half of a 10-year sentence for "incitement to subvert state power," a crime under Article 105 of the Criminal Law. Li was tried on May 6, 2001 and sentenced on September 20, 2001, according to the China Labour Bulletin.
Delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) called for changes to China's Labor Law to protect the rights of migrant workers, according to March 9 People's Daily and March 13 Xinhua articles. The delegates noted that the existing law, enacted in 1994, lacks articles dealing with migrant workers and provides insufficient protection for their rights and interests. CPPCC and Guangdong labor officials cited in the People's Daily article noted that the inability of workers to collect back wages owed to them posed particular concern. An NPC delegate said that recent calls by central authorities for increased protection of migrant rights will have little effect in the absence of specific legislative provisions.
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The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held another in its series of staff-led Issues Roundtables on Tuesday, April 11, 2006, from 10:00 to 11:30 AM in Room 2255 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The Roundtable is entitled "The Lot of Chinese Workers: Do China's Labor Laws Work?"
Premier Wen Jiabao pledged in a March 6, 2006, address to delegates of the National People’s Congress to increase central government spending on mine safety, and admitted that China’s mine safety has "serious problems," according to a March 6, 2006, South China Morning Post report (subscription required). Wen placed the primary responsibility for mine accidents on local officials, and allowed that, together with traffic accidents, mine accidents result in great losses in lives and property. He said that China's poor safety record is the result of the huge demand for coal, poor implementation of safety rules, lack of oversight by local officials, and the corruption of safety officials and mine owners. Wen said the central government would contribute some 3 billion yuan (approximately US $374 million) to develop solutions to coal mine gas explosions, and he called on local governments and mine owners to invest more in safety programs.