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)