A new regulation issued by Beijing Municipal Construction Committee
on May 12, gives farmer workers on Beijing's building sites
conditional permission to move to other construction projects if
necessary, and even back to their homes following a health check.
"To prevent infection of SARS among farmer workers, Beijing
government authority have carried out a policy to persuade them to
stay in the building site where they work. But some contradictions
have appeared. As the undertaken project has been finished, workers
can't go out to find new work due to the restrictions. At the same
time, some new opened projects also can't recruit enough labor.
This has resulted in a progress delay on some projects, even some
being shut down partly," Wang Lichen, vice director of Beijing
Municipal Construction Committee said.
The newly laid out regulation gives four conditions for farmer
workers to move to other building sites. First, farmer workers have
no SARS symptoms and are examined to be in health. Second, the
input building site must attain the six standards of SARS
prevention and control regulation. Third, the transportation of
farmer workers must be managed by the general contractor unit,
while special vehicles are needed for their transit. Forth, the
input and output labor list must be warranted by the district or
county construction committees where the building site is
located.
If
SARS case is found among those transmitted workers within two
weeks, the major leader of output unit will be charged according to
investigation results.
To
those farmer workers who have finished their project, without new
tasks undertaken, they may ask for leave from Beijing to their
homes with a health certificate permitted by their construction
unit and local construction authorities. Their construction unit is
responsible to notify the workers' local government authorities and
local construction management authorities as well.
(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, May 18, 2003)