Worker Rights
A December 2004 State Council notice calls on authorities to improve the treatment of migrant workers, but the limited scope of the reforms contained in it suggests that any improvements in official handling of migrants’ problems will be incremental.
The notice calls for three broad types of reforms: eliminating discriminatory employment measures and improving job assistance programs (for more information, see an earlier CECC analysis); resolving outstanding violations of migrants’ rights (such as back wage complaints); and regulating labor markets more tightly (by, for example, increasing government supervision of labor contracts).
Labor activist Xiao Yunliang was released on February 23, 2006, from Kangjiashan Prison in Shenyang city, Liaoning province, according to a February 28 press release from the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S. NGO that monitors political imprisonment in China. The remaining 24 days of his four-year sentence were commuted, and he is subject to two years deprivation of political rights until February 22, 2008.
A February 9 explosion in a perfume factory in Guangdong province that killed 5 workers and injured 12 illustrates that Chinese workers in industries outside the coal mining sector also face dangerous conditions. The perfume factory explosion was reported in a February 10 article in the Epoch Times.
The annual report of the government-sponsored Beijing Migrant Workers Legal Aid Center said that labor subcontractors “have become a serious obstacle to the protection of migrant worker rights,” according to a January 18 China Youth Daily article. Established in September 2005, the Center has received 2,007 inquiries regarding cases, 757 of which represent back wage issues involving more than 13,000 workers and totaling about 35 million yuan (about US $ 4.3 million) of disputed back wages. The Center has accepted 271 of these cases.
Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the commitment of the central government to reforming China's mining industry and closing illegal mines, but acknowledged that the safety situation remains serious despite official efforts, according to a January 25 Beijing News article. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has ordered the closure of China’s most dangerous mines, as part of a campaign to improve safety in the coal mining industry. Despite this order, nearly 60 percent of the mines ordered to close remain open and operating, according to a January 17 article in The Standard. The NDRC said that 5,001 mines were ordered to close, but only 2,157 actually closed. The Standard report also noted that the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) reported that 5,986 miners died in coal mine accidents in 2005 and 2,235 died in other kinds of ore mining accidents, for a combined average of 22 miner deaths each day.
The Xinjiang Chemical Engineering Technical School (XCETS) garnered praise from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Propaganda Department for placing 60 minority graduates in jobs in the southern coastal city of Shenzhen, in an April 20 "hot topics" article in Tianshan. According to the article, this group of 60 will be the largest group of minority students that the autonomous region has ever sent at one time to other Chinese provinces for employment. The XCETS graduates heading to Shenzhen are trained in chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, and "other technical fields." The group represents over 10 percent of the school's graduating class. Lu Guohui, the XCETS party secretary and headmaster, said that the school may send three or four more groups of students by the end of 2005.
Migrant labor is in short supply in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, according to a December 3 China Radio International article, affecting the local construction, smelting, and mining industries. More generally, low wages and harsh working conditions contributed to shortages of migrant labor throughout China in 2004, according to the analysis of scholar Mo Rong that appeared in a book entitled "An Analysis and Projection of China's Social Situation in 2005" [2005 nian: Zhongguo shehui xingshi fenxi yu yuce], (Beijing: Social Sciences Data Press, 2004), 260-272. These shortages may be increasing pressure on employers to pay greater attention to worker rights, according to testimony at a November 3 Commission roundtable, "Working Conditions in China: Just and Favorable?"
Li Yizhong, Minister of the General Administration of Work Safety (GAWS), commented that the Chinese government should implement stricter safety standards for coal mines and a regularized process of mine inspections, according to a November 15 Legal Daily report. Li led an inspection tour of coal mines in Hunan province, one of nine province-wide inspections of unsafe mines that the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, a unit of GAWS, conducted in November.
About 5,000 workers took part in a mass protest in Shenzhen on November 4, seeking to draw attention to claims of inadequate compensation for their dismissal from state-owned enterprises following restructurings, according to a November 5 Radio Free Asia report. Workers from three separate factories protested, and five detentions resulted.
Chinese coal miners are dying in mining accidents in increasing numbers despite government efforts to close dangerous mines, according to an October 13 Xinhua report. Between January and September, 4,228 coal miners died in mine accidents, compared to 4,153 in the same period in 2004.