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Delaying payment to migrant workers to be outlawed
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-29 08:45
To better protect employees rights and interests, Chinese lawmakers are
considering adding an article in the Criminal Law to deliver criminal penalties
to employers that delay salary payments or run away.
A migrant worker
sheds tears lying in sick bed in a Shaanxi hospital. The young man was
beaten to serious injury as he asked for back payment from a construction
contractor. [huashphoto] |
In a report
delivered at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's
Congress (NPC) on Wednesday, He Luli, vice chairwoman of the Committee, said
that the legitimate rights and interests of employees have been basically
safeguarded since the introduction of the Labor Law on Jan. 1, 1995.
But she cautioned that many problems in violation of laborers' rights and
interests still exist, especially in labor-intensive sectors such as
construction, garments and accommodation, and in many small and medium-sized
private businesses.
The Chinese government will beef up the formulation of labor contract
law, social security law, labor dispute settlement law and employment
facilitation law, revise the Labor Law and try to settle all the overdue pay
owed by employers to migrant workers by the end of 2007.
Government statistics showed that the number of employed people in Chinese
cities and towns jumped from 190 million in 1995 to 265 million in 2004.
In order to settle the issue of back pay to migrant workers, 16
provincial-level regions and municipalities have set up the mechanism to ensure
the payment of salaries and 14 provincial-level regions have introduced a system
to monitor the delivery of salaries.
In an NPC questionnaire surveyed among 2,150 businesses in 40 cities this
year, 7.8 percent of the employees said they had been withheld salaries
amounting to 2,184 yuan (273 U.S. dollars) per person for 3.2 months on average
over the past year.
In addition to the survey, an inspection team of the NPC Standing Committee
had visited seven provinces and municipalities,including Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangdong and Chongqing, to check the implementation of the Labor Law.
"Some localities still have very serious problems of docking or delaying the
payment of salaries," said He, the vice chairwoman.
In 2004, 41 percent of the cases investigated by the social security
supervision departments fell into the payment delay category.
"Social incidents triggered by overdue salaries, especially by employers who
escape and hide, are on the rise, seriously undermining social stability," said
He.
Less than 20 percent of employers are found to have signed labor contracts
with their workers in small and medium-sized private businesses, most of which
have no trade unions to guarantee the staff's rights.
Some workers were given salaries below the basic level required by the local
government, and had to work overtime without extra pay, while quite a large
number of private business employees and migrant workers have no insurance.
He urged central and local governments to properly handle the relationship
between the implementation of the Labor Law and economic development, open more
employment channels, severely punish employers who fail to comply with the basic
salary requirement, as well as improve social security and labor dispute
settlement systems.
The central government should, she suggested, start checking on the
implementation of labor contracts across the country in 2006 and ensure all
businesses sign labor contracts with their employees in three years.
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