Experts: Improve welfare of 200 million rural workers
(chinadaily.com.cn/AFP)
Updated: 2006-05-01 09:22
The 200 million rural migrant laborers now working in Chinese cities, one of
the major forces creating the economic boom of China and the world as well, need
to be taken good care of their rights by the government and the society, experts
said.
A Chinese migrant worker carries his
belongings as he boards his train to go home for the Mayday holidays, at
the railway station in Beijing. Chinese experts urge the Chinese goverment
to take good care of their rights. [AFP] |
A
central government survey has showed that 68 percent of employees in China's
manufacturing sector and 80 percent in the construction sector were rural
migrant workers.
"You must be kidding," construction worker Li Yuntian, 26, said when asked if
he would be taking any days off for the official seven-day national holiday that
begins May 1 Day, also called International Laborers¡¯ Day.
"We work every day, we don't even take Sundays off. As long as they pay us we
will work," Li told AFP in an interview.
Li, who along with about 40 other young men from Hebei province is helping to
build one of the seemingly limitless new skyscrapers in Beijing, told reporters
frankly that he knew nothing about the labor laws.
Asked if he knew he was meant to be paid triple time for working on legally
mandated holidays, Li simply shook his head.
China is in the midst of an unprecedented process of urbanization that by
some accounts will see its city population grow by up to 600 million people by
2050.
According to a recently published survey by the Developmental Research Center
of the State Council, China's cabinet, the nation's rural migrant labor force
rose to 200 million people this year. The survey found that 120 million rural
migrant workers now work in China's cities, while another 80 million are in
smaller towns. All of them have left even lower-paying farm life.
The huge numbers of migrant workers have made it extremely difficult for the
central government to manage the labor market, which in turn has provided
limitless exploitation opportunities for unscrupulous businesses and local
authorities, experts said.
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