Society
Labor pains: Stabbing highlights need to protect migrant workers
By Hu Yongqi and Peng Yining (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-20 07:37
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 Zhang Li breaks down in tears as she tells China Daily about the mounting medical bills facing her family. [Feng Yongbin/China Daily] |
Experts said incidents such as the attack on Gao could be avoided if more migrant laborers signed legally binding contracts with employers before taking on work.
"Cases of injuries to workers who have asked for delayed payment happen almost every year, and they have been drawing the public's attention for a long time," said Yu Lingyun, a law professor at Tsinghua University. "They are slipping through a gap in the legal system. Migrant workers either don't know about, or don't want to use the law to protect their interests because they think complaints and prosecutions are often useless."
The legal process to readdress delayed payment is too slow, and it can potentially take months for a court to come to a decision, he said.
"The court might not be able to find the employer. In that case, any effort to get unpaid wages by a migrant worker is useless and may force him or her to fight directly against their employer," said Yu.
"They want to draw more public attention, so they threaten to jump from bridges. They know if a mayor or local official notices them, their problems will more likely be solved. But the more aggressive they act the more chance these conflicts between workers and employers will become personal and cause revenge."
The frustration over pay disputes has led to a variety of ugly attacks, such as in April 2006 when more than 30 workers armed with sticks and knives severely injured six bosses at a construction site in Anhui province. Dozens of laborers also staged a rooftop protest on a 30-story building in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Dec 16 last year. They all threatened to jump if they did not receive their money.
However, Zhou Ze, a Beijing lawyer who has helped with several pay disputes, said such actions do more harm than good.
"Migrant workers should protect their rights in rational ways. Threatening to jump from a building or a bridge is not the way to protect your interests, although it is becoming a popular form of protest for disgruntled laborers," he said.
He recommended workers instead take complaints to local labor security departments where staff can help to prosecute bad employers.
"The process is not too complex and migrant workers do not even have to pay legal costs in most Chinese cities," said Zhou. "The majority of migrant workers do not know what to do if they have no contract with their employer, but they can simply get their colleagues to prove employment and claim any unpaid wages legally.
"Direct conflict might cause injuries and anyone, workers or employers, who commit a criminal offense are legal liable."
Zhou Guiyan, another lawyer who has helped laborers with pay disputes in Shanghai and Guangdong province, and offers free consultations to migrant workers, agreed and said that, in most cases, it is a lack of education about legal rights that is leaving migrant workers open to abuse.
Most workers do not have a strong sense of the law, while local authorities' policies often support companies, rather than employees, she said.
"In order to push the economy, government actions also usually err on the side of companies and factories, leaving workers in a helpless situation. Also, even if they lose a lawsuit, some companies will refuse to pay up if there is no enforcement of the court's decision," said Zhou Guiyan. "It's not all government and employers' fault, but migrant workers are definitely at a disadvantage."
Gao Zhiqiang was only two when his father died and his mother could not afford to send him and his three sisters to school. He has little to no knowledge about contracts or legal rights, he said.
"I didn't even know the employer's name and phone number," he told China Daily. "All I had was a verbal promise."
Brother-in-law Song added: "He had no idea about signing a contract when he got a job. We don't do that in our hometown, why would he think of doing it here?"
Finding a solution to conflicts over delayed payment has been a key goal of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the group said in a report on Dec 30, 2009.
The federation launched a three-month nationwide investigation into the issue on Nov 15.
However, Yu argued more help should be made available from non-governmental organizations as they could better coordinate the protection of migrant workers' rights.
"There are millions of migrant workers in China and they are not organized at all. When their interests are violated, they don't know whom to call. We have the China Consumers' Association, why can't we set up an association for migrant workers?" he said.
"Most cases involve small groups of people who are demanding slender salaries, probably less than 1,000 or even 100 yuan. I can understand why the police don't get involved in the cases because the money is so little, but for migrant workers their salary means everything."
