China's legislature is amending work safety laws to increase
punishments for offenders and protect labor rights, a minister said
over the weekend.
Li Yizhong, minister of the State Administration of Work Safety,
said lax laws, rules and regulations and inefficient enforcement
have contributed to the grim work safety situation that has plagued
the country for years.
"Compared with punishment in other countries, there is plenty of
room for our legislature to revise the Criminal Law and other
laws," said Li. "We should become determined to use the severest
punishment to overawe offenders."
China's Criminal Law stipulates that work safety criminals can
be given a maximum seven-year prison sentence, and the time can be
reduced once behind bars.
Meanwhile, companies that do not meet national work safety
standards can be fined a maximum of only 200,000 yuan (US$25,000)
if accidents take place.
"In developed countries work safety laws are much tougher," Li
said,
Lifelong imprisonment is possible if companies in the United
States violate laws and encroach upon labor rights.
And in Australia, coal mine owners and executives will be barred
from the mining business for the rest of their lives if accidents
take place in their mines. Of course, they will also be charged
with higher fines.
"In a maturing market economy, the legislature and the
government should set up a strict but fair legal framework for
companies and require them to protect labor rights," said Li.
In addition to tightening the legal system, Li said it is
equally important to improve safety awareness among the workers,
most of whom are migrants.
Huang Shengchu, president of China Coal Information Institute,
told China Daily that mining is dangerous and poorly paid,
and only farmers from the poorest regions choose to work in what
are often underground death traps.
"The most important thing is that poorly-educated
farmers-turned-miners receive training and guidance," said
Huang.
Statistics indicate that nearly half of China's 5.5 million coal
miners are migrant workers from northern Sichuan, southern Shaanxi, and the mountainous regions of Jiangxi, Fujian and Henan provinces.
Because of poor safety awareness and substandard equipment, the
situation in the mines is as bad as ever, said Zhao Tiechui,
director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
University graduates are not willing to work in collieries, said
Li. Statistics show that a total of 38,000 students graduated from
mining-related universities nationwide from 1999 to 2002, but less
then 10 percent of them chose to work in mines.
"We are going to come up with more attractive measures to
recruit more students with mining qualifications and enrich the
manpower of the sector," said Li.
(China Daily June 19, 2006)