The Shanghai Labor and Security Bureau set up booths around the city yesterday to remind migrant workers in the city about their legal rights.

The bureau also reminded companies that employ migrants that they must buy injury insurance for their employees or they will be forced to pay compensation in the event of an accident on the job - a law that was enacted four years ago.

The bureau refused yesterday to say how effective that law has been, or estimate the percentage of migrants in the city covered by insurance.

"There have always been disputes over compensation between employees and the companies, and most of them are caused by the companies that have not bought injury insurance for their employees," said bureau official Zhang Yuan.

One such case was filed by the family of a migrant worker surnamed Huang. Huang's company asked him to install a lamp in Pudong on March 11, 2005, but Huang was killed in a car accident on his way home. His company was ordered to compensate.

Since the law was enacted four years ago, 77,592 workplace accidents have been reported in the city, involving 44,160 migrants. Insurance covered 31,256 of those migrants, according to the bureau, which wouldn't say how many of the other migrants were compensated.

(Shanghai Daily April 30, 2007)