NPC, CPPCC Delegates Call For Labor Law Changes to Address Migrant Worker Issues

Delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) called for changes to China's Labor Law to protect the rights of migrant workers, according to March 9 People's Daily and March 13 Xinhua articles. The delegates noted that the existing law, enacted in 1994, lacks articles dealing with migrant workers and provides insufficient protection for their rights and interests. CPPCC and Guangdong labor officials cited in the People's Daily article noted that the inability of workers to collect back wages owed to them posed particular concern. An NPC delegate said that recent calls by central authorities for increased protection of migrant rights will have little effect in the absence of specific legislative provisions.

Party and State Council officials highlighted both the need for increased attention to the rights of migrant workers and the increasing wealth gap in China in their Opinion on Promoting the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside issued on December 31, 2005. Li Yonghai, an official with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions said that “The wealth gap between rich and poor is terrifying and is the basic source of social instability,” according to a March 8 South China Morning Post article. Weak protections of worker rights have led to a sharp rise in collective disputes in China. Low wages and unpaid back wages are major causes of these disputes. A March 8 Yanzhao Daily opinion piece (published in the China Daily) noted that the average annual income of migrant workers is is 8,000 yuan (US $988), about half of the urban average income, and that the average monthly wage of migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta increased only by 68 yuan (US $8.40) between 1992 and 2004. An NPC delegate cited in the Xinhua article noted that Chinese workers in some textile plants work 12-hour days with no overtime pay, suffer underpayment of wages, and have a high rate of deaths and injuries at work.