When Ma Jixing contracted the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis his former employer refused to pay any compensation claiming Ma had never worked for the company

During the run-up to the Spring Festival holiday, government and trade union officials were once again prioritizing the resolution of labour disputes, to ensure that migrant workers could return home with at least some of the pay owed to them by employers. In December 2011, at least eight government departments issued notices demanding that employers pay their workers on time, and the national trade union urged local unions to mobilize and prioritize legal assistance for migrant workers in these matters

Amendments to China’s Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Occupational Diseases (职业病防治法), approved by the National People’s Congress on 31 December 2011, will go some way to ease the ordeal workers face in getting diagnosed and compensated for occupational disease, according to a leading labour rights activist.

As labour unrest continues to rise, the Chinese government has unveiled a new set of regulations that it hopes will enhance the labour dispute resolution process. Photo by attack the darkness @flickr.com

A planned increase in Guangdong’s minimum wage of up to 20 percent, which was scheduled to go into effect on 1 January next year, has been put on hold, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper reported today.

Over the past decade or more, watchdogs of corporate activity, governments, business leaders and non-governmental organizations have all struggled with how best to deal with human rights abuses caused by business activities. One response has been the Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) movement. A plethora of CSR actors now exist: with a wide array of codes of conduct, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and labelling schemes. And although the CSR movement has made many positive contributions, it is now at a turning point.

Powerful business interests in China and Hong Kong have effectively blocked recent labour reforms, raising the likelihood of further bouts of wildcat strikes and other unrest, a report said Wednesday. The China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based group that monitors labour conditions in China, said Hong Kong business leaders recently helped block proposed legislation in neighbouring Guangdong province that would have enabled workers to initiate and join in collective bargaining with management.

In July 2009, Zhang Haichao voluntarily underwent an operation to open up his chest in order to prove he was suffering from the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis. Photograph of Zhang by Yanzhou Metropolis Daily

China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.

30 July 2009. Beijing.
From The Economist Print Edition

What lies behind the gruesome death of a manager at Tonghua Iron and Steel?

China Labour Bulletin has written to major electronics companies, including Apple, Nokia and Motorola, urging them to investigate reports of excessive overtime, management abuse and the firing of striking workers at Wintek Dongguan Masstop, one of their major suppliers in China.