The Shanghai Municipal Council of Trade Unions has recently opened a hotline to advise women on their rights as workers.
Lawyers, officials with the Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau and volunteer professors from the law school of the Fudan University are at the end of the line to explain related laws and help women solve their work-related problems.
According to sources with the trade unions, 40 percent of the complaints during a recent labor security survey were made by women. They focused on the signing of labor contracts, pregnancy and child-bearing arrangements.
The survey found that a privately-owned garment manufacturer had failed to sign labor contracts with its 300 employees, and that a non-governmental company had refused to pay social security fees for its workers.
As part of the Shanghai municipal government's efforts to secure working women's rights, the hotline is scheduled to have more lines and more professionals soon.
(People’s Daily 0806/2001)
