Marginalized by city life, the main threat that migrant workers
face is being refused payment of earnings after working hard for
the whole year. As there is a dearth of laws safeguarding migrant
workers' rights, wage payment defaults are an ongoing and common
problem. In 2002 one in every four migrant workers experienced
defaults in wage payment sociologist Li Qiang said.
Gui Yanchao, a 43-year-old farmer from Daxin Town, Dawu County,
Hubei Province, is an example. Ten years ago, he went to Shenyang
with 25 fellow villagers and contracted for the plastering of a
construction project. He signed a formal contract with the first
party, who later refused to pay him. Cui then worked as a trishaw
driver and pressed for payment of the money owed to him. He has not
once seen his wife and children in the past ten years.
Xiong Deming is woman farmer of of Yunyang County in Chongqing.
Her honest disclosure of a local employer's defaulted payment of
her husband's wages brought the passing of an act that helps
migrant workers obtain their salaries. Governments at all levels
have since been urged to help migrant workers, and companies in
default are severely punished. Beijing municipal government has
announced that any building enterprise failing to pay migrant
workers' wages would be driven out of the Beijing market.
Payment default is not merely a matter of employment ethics, but
an economic problem stemming from migrant workers' low status.
Urban citizens can demand a government guarantee of their rights
and interests, but migrant workers cannot. The solution to the
problem is to abolish discriminatory regulations formulated during
the planned economy era that restrict farmers from staying in
cities.
Recent media concern for migrant workers has raised the issues
of improving their status, relaxing restrictions on them, and
bestowing on them the same rights as those enjoyed by urban
dwellers. The Chinese government's passing of acts that show
solicitude for and protect migrant workers was sparked off by
Xiong's honest disclosure.
Recently, the State Development and Reform Commission and the
Ministry of Finance announced that migrant workers would no longer
be required to pay sundry fees.
"We firmly believe that deeper reforms and social advancement
will eliminate the pejorative connotations of being a migrant
worker," the Worker's Daily said in its article "An
Important Signal for Social Change."
(Shenzhen Daily August 25, 2004)