Beijing Municipal People's Congress legislators Thursday urged
local government officials to adopt effective measures safeguarding
the legal interests of employees, especially migrant workers.
In the first eight months of this year, farmers-turned-construction
workers have not been paid salaries amounting to as much as 330
million yuan (US$40 million) by their bosses in the construction
industry, according to Luo Qing, vice-director of the Financial and
Economic Committee of the congress.
Luo also pointed out that some foreign enterprises and private
enterprises have failed to protect the interests of employees
according to Labour Law, especially towards female employees.
"The municipal government should strengthen supervision towards
illegal behavior that ignores the rights of employees," Luo
urged.
The vice-director appealed for a joint supervision system among
various governmental departments to better uphold the law.
Luo made the comments Thursday at a meeting of the Standing
Committee of the municipal people's congress.
On the issue, Vice-Mayor Sun Anmin vowed to upgrade the working
system to regulate behaviors of enterprises.
"We will give priority to prevention of such illegal behavior that
violates rights of workers, instead of mere punishment," he said
Thursday.
The formation of trade unions is expected to be encouraged within
non-public businesses to safeguard laborers' interests, according
to the vice-mayor.
Tripartite consultation systems among labor security authorities,
trade unions and enterprises have been established since 2001 at
municipal, district (county) and community levels.
The issue of dealing with delayed salaries in the construction
industry and other issues safeguarding legal rights of employees
are expected to be involved in the tripartite consultations,
according to Sun.
During the past three years, a total of 207,000 enterprises have
undergone inspections from local governments over the issue of
worker protection.
Salaries of 650 million yuan (US$79 million), which have been
delayed in payment by enterprises, were paid through efforts of the
government in the past three years, according to Sun.
Migrant workers have also become able to gain medical and
industrial injury insurance like their counterparts with permanent
residence in Beijing, the vice-mayor said.
(China Daily October 22, 2004)