Frequently, migrant workers are viewed as society's downtrodden. Defending their rights, in most cases, means saving their lives.
Case
Wang Jihua, a 41-year-old migrant worker from a village in Anhui province, is facing a double catastrophe.
Here is something he never expected: coming to Beijing to seek a better life, but ending up permanently handicapped.
With a mother in her 80's and a small kid, Wang is the family's sole wage earner. Now unable to provide them with adequate care, he became desperate and took out high-interest loans from some local rural credit cooperatives. Overwhelmed by her husband's misfortune and mire of debt, his wife has abandoned him, vowing never to return.
The miserable man sobbed out his story to China Youth Daily by phone: "I got injured working on a construction site in Beijing. The boss wouldn't give me a penny in compensation so I returned to my hometown. Now I'm stuck with a 10,000-yuan debt from a local hospital. I'm going to be an invalid for the rest of my life, unable to work: how will I survive? I know that I can't afford to just sitting around moaning."
Finally, the Beijing Legal Aid Society for Migrant Workers came to his rescue.
Wang recounted that he was hired on March 16, 2007 by the Xinyida Construction Engineering Co., Ltd in Hebei Province as a construction worker on the Olympic Garden project. The China Sports Group was in charge of the undertaking. No labor contract was signed when he was hired.
In the afternoon of March 17, wearing no safety equipment, Wang fell down from a scaffold while working on the fourth floor. Doctors diagnosed his injury as a comminuted fracture in his left ankle.
The reporter contacted Qin Jianzhang, the contact person for Wang when the latter was being treated in Beijing's Changxindian Hospital. Qin served as construction team's foreman. But when asked if he was a regular employee at Xinyida, he hedged: "Yes and no. The company pays me anyway."
Qin claimed that Wang was "borrowed" from another company and would only work on the site for five days. That's why no official employment procedures were signed.
"Wang worked just one day on my site; he didn't get injured working," Qin claimed. "God knows how he broke his ankle!"
Qin then went on to admit that Wang had indeed stayed overnight at the hospital. "We treated him very well, but he insisted on leaving," Qin said. He also claimed that he paid 3,000 yuan to the hospital the next day after Wang left and gave Wang a 7,000 yuan loan for his expenses back home.
But when the reporter attempted to check on further details, Qin abruptly hung up the phone. Not surprisingly, Wang's version is completely different. He said that even the money to pay for the plaster cast for his broken ankle was scraped together by workmates. "The company wouldn't pay for my operation. I was in severe pain; I had neither money nor friends. What alternative did I have but to head home?"
The employer didn't offer Wang any safety education or training. He had no adequate safety protection equipment and no labor contract. Even work clothes were unavailable, according to Wu Fengmin, Wang's lawyer.
The public trial of Wang's case was on August 15. The Labor Bureau of Beijing's Fengtai district conducted the proceedings.
Analysis
Wang isn't alone. Many migrant workers seeking jobs in China's biggest cities have found themselves in the same tragic situation.
From September 8, 2005, when the Beijing Legal Aid Society was established, till March 15, 2007, in-house lawyers handled as many as 152 cases involving work-related injuries of migrant workers. Among the 152 cases, a mere 14 workers had official labor contracts, only 9.2 percent of the total. Only 12 laborers were covered in work-related injury insurance schemes, just 7.89 percent of the total. Overall, more than 90 percent of the migrant workers were illegal hires.
Wang Fang, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, noted that the employer usually didn't bother to buy insurance for a non-contracted-worker.
Illegal hiring mainly takes place in three ways:
a. Construction companies illegally subcontract projects to labor-contractors.
39.9 percent of the 138 illegal hire cases fall into this category. Subcontractors cut off the primary connection between migrant workers and the actual employer. Subcontractors are responsible for the majority of low contract-signing rate and low-insurance-coverage rate.
The existence of subcontractors also makes it difficult for relevant authorities to monitor the exact number of construction workers on a site and to penalize employers when problems occur. Even worse, injured workers are unable to obtain the necessary proof of employment paperwork without a direct connection to their employers.
Having no alternatives, some victims are forced to sue the labor-contractor instead of the employer for compensation. But even if a worker wins his lawsuit, the court's verdict has little chance of being implemented.
b. Employer without legal status hire migrant workers or child labors
18 people in the 138 cases are injured for this reason. For example, Tan Wenbing got injured working for a home decoration provider without necessary qualifications; Yu Hao, a child laborer under 15, had his arm torn apart by a machine.
These illegal employers prefer to hire migrant workers because they do not pay much attention to regulations and business licenses; migrants just want to get paid. Sadly, after accident occurs, the victim cannot seek compensation according to related regulations. This is because they are deemed individual hires instead of group hires.
Even worse, most illegal employers refuse to purchase insurance for migrant workers. When their workers get injured, the "underground factory" bosses flee the scene and remain in hiding. This creates difficulties for investigating labor security authorities.
c. Companies with legal status engaged in illegal hiring
This practice is common in China, covering 47.1 percent of the total. Under these conditions migrant workers are neither protected by labor contracts, nor covered by insurance. As a result, much time is required to simply verify work relations. Moreover, these migrant workers cannot access the State Insurance Fund for Work-Related Injury.
Solutions
Cornered and desperate, some indigent migrants commit suicide. Others resort to drastic actions, vowing revenge on their bosses.
With medical threatening to bankrupt the family, injured migrant workers can become human time bombs in society.
"Occasionally lawyers can get evidence by visiting the victim's workmates or bosses, but sometimes there is no evidence at all," said Wang Fang. "Defending migrant worker's rights is a very tricky problem. High costs, complicated procedures and the employer's refusal to take responsibility all exact huge tolls on the government, society and the affected workers," she added.
Under the work-related injury insurance regulations, injured migrant workers must go through at least three stages before they can obtain damages. Employer's non-cooperation forces them to spend extra time in addition to normal procedures.
Before the workers can apply for work-injury verification, proof of employment with the employer must be confirmed. This process alone requires arbitration by labor authorities, either via preliminary and/or secondary court hearings. But if the employer deliberately prolongs the process by applying for administrative reviews and other proceedings, it is often economically impossible for the injured workers to continue proceedings.
How to sort out this quandary?
Lawyers at the legal aid society have suggested that if uninsured migrant workers got injured during work, the social security fund should step in and immediately cover insurance costs. After the injured worker has recovered, the social security authorities could then demand reimbursement from his illegal employers.
Additionally, general contractors should be held responsible for providing migrant workers with work-related insurance. They must pay all necessary fees to the social security authorities.
(China.org.cn by Zou Di, August 16, 2007)
