The government should further improve the rules and regulations
protecting migrant workers, says a commentary in Dazhong
Daily. An excerpt follows:
The government of Dalian, Liaoning Province in northeast China,
has established a special fund for migrant workers. The government
will pay workers out of this fund if employers do not pay these
workers on time. The government will then retrieve the money from
the employers.
After the central government issued several files on protecting
the rights of migrant workers, many provinces asked migrant worker'
employers to hand over some money as a guarantee for these workers'
salaries.
The practice of Dalian made the headlines because it uses public
money to pay the workers, making the delayed salaries a debt owed
to the government.
The local government has obviously done so out of goodwill, but
it is not in accordance with the law. This discrepancy should be
evaluated.
Migrant workers have often been cheated out of their pay because
they were not well organized. Also, the rules covering labor
disputes are not well established, making it both costly and
difficult for migrant workers to get their pay.
The government paying the workers, then requiring reimbursement
from employers, greatly helps largely powerless workers.
However, the public funds come from taxpayers and the government
should not put the money at risk over employers' failure to pay
migrant workers.
The primary responsibilities of the government should be to
establish regulations for safeguarding migrant workers' interests,
impose strict supervision on migrant workers' employers, make sure
workers have proper employment contracts, and improve migrant
workers' awareness of their rights.
(China Daily February 5, 2007)