With the increasing flow of peasant workers into Chinese cities, relevant problems turn up as constant obsession for them. Now, the government carrys out a series of enforcement to offer protection and service to this special group in China’s work force.
As there lies a wide gap between China’s western and eastern regions as well as between urban and rural ereas, an increasing number of farmers flocks into cities and act as a powerful force in Chinese economic development. But many of them face some problems including late payments. It has already become a big concern of the government bodies to serve the interests of the peasant workers who are making considerable contributions to local development and expect to go back home with their fully payed salary for the celebration of Spring Festival.
A recent survey shows that over 60 percent of businesses in big Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou are intent on hiring more peasant workers this year as part of their business expansion plan. As relevant governemnt bodies have made great efforts to solove the problems worrying many peasant workers, employers should shoulder their responsibilities in the treatment of the peasant workers, a major base for urban construction.
Gui Street is a famous food street in Beijing’s Dongcheng District, where dozens of restaurants are located and a great number of peasant workers from all over China live. Staff members of the Labor and Social Welfare Bureau in the Dongcheng District recently checked one of the restaurants here. Only one month after it started business in Decmember of 2001, it received complaints for late payment to its employees and was then ordered by the local labor supervisory department to suspend its operation within two days for the rectification of its management. It reopened in September of 2002. Now, 40 working staff out of the total of over 50 come from the rural areas in provinces such as Henan, Hebei, Sichuan and Heilongjiang.
Li Ziqiong, Labor Supervisory Team, Beijing Dongcheng District, said, “According to our check, the restaurant has come up to standards in some basic areas such as employment identification, labor contracts, salary payment and insurance.”
Li also said, “The last payment was issued on December 25 of last year. But some employees got an earlier payment of their salary for January as they left to go home to celebrate Spring Festival starting on February 1st this year.”
Liu Dongmei, once a farmer in Hebei province, came to Beijing for a job two years ago. She first worked as a waitress in a restaurant near Di’anmen with a monthly salary of six hundred yuan (about $70). Later she attained a position as head waitress in that restaurant. Her salary doubled, and she became the economic pillar of her family in the countryside.
Liu Dongmei, Head Waitress, said, I send nearly 800 yuan back to my home every month, about 10,000 each year in total. Because I have just a few relatives at home who earn a little money, the whole family depends on my salary now.
It is known that before Spring Festival, Chinese lunar New Year, special staff members in labor protection agencies in China’s cities were assigned to moniter the payment of peasant workers’ salaries.
Statistics show that during the six years between 1997 and 2002, the total number of Chinese peasant workers has increased to 90 million from 40 million. Over 70 percent of them work in cities, and the rest work in county towns. In some areas, immigrant workers outnumber the local people by large margins. For instance, the total population of Chang’an county town in Dongguan city of Guangdong province is up to 650,000 with a local population of only 45,000. In Beijing, among the 3.65 million immigrants who have gotten temporary residence permits, some 3.1 million are peasant workers.
Zong Fengjing, Deputy Director, Beijing Labor and Social Welfare Bureau, said, “It is notable that in the building trade and social services, the commitment of peasant workers turns out to be indispensable to both large-scale construction and the interest of people’s daily life. Beijing couldn’t maintain its strong economic development without immigrant workers, the smooth progress of the projects for 2008 Olympic Games in particular. We can say that they have made considerable contribution to Beijing’s economic growth of over 9 percent annually.”
Surveys show that a majority of peasant workers are engaged in the industries such as construction, manufacturing, and social services, including food and home services as well as public security. 650,000 out of 3.1 million immigrant workers in Beijing sweat on construction sites. As salaries in this field are payed annually, the construction industry got the largest number of complaints for late payments right before Spring Festival.
Wu Antai, Chief of Supervisory Section, Beijing Labor and Social Welfare Bureau, said, “After investigations among 1,623 units, there are over six hundred cases of past due payment. More than 70 percent of the cases are related to construction companies, covering 84 percent of the total construction workers. Through enforcement by relevant governmennt bodies, we’ve retrieved 16.66 million yuan (about $2 million) of salary in arrears for nearly 8,500 immigrant workers. All the cases are closed now.”
There are six hundred peasant workers engaged in this reconstruction project of dangerous buildings in Dongcheng district. Most of them were payed before Spring Festival and have gone home for celebration.
Manager of Daxing Seventh Construction Company of Beijing, said, “We’ve payed 4 million yuan (about $500,000) in 2002 to our workers. There are 200,000-300,000 yuan unpayed so far, which we have prepared for the workers by and large. We’ll issue the full payment when they wrap up their work.”
Experts point out that in recent years, Chinese farmers have been confronted with difficulties in raising their income because of decresed agricultural revenues. This resulted from over-supply in the market of agricultural products. Thanks to farmers’ salary payments, including the income that peasant workers earn both in cities and local township enterprises, farmers’ revenue maintains a steady annual growth rate of 2-5 percent.
According to estimates, if fully payed, the 94 million peasant workers can get a total income of more than 500 billion yuan (about $60 billion) in 2002. It is highly possible that Chinese farmers’ income will sink to negative growth without the increase of mobile employment.
|
