What rising prices mean to a worker

The world loves to refer to China as the "factory of the world", though it never tires of blaming it for the cost development has exacted on its environment. The pressure on the environment can be reduced only with the combined effort of the entire world community - and the world better join hands immediately for that. But there is one pressure, the pressure on the workers of the "factory of the world", which the Chinese government can reduce on its own, and it has decided to do so.

No matter how insignificant company managements consider workers to be, they are still the most important factor of production and means to increasing big capital. To protect this workforce and to meet the changing demands of its post-reform society, China implemented a new law, binding on domestic and foreign companies both, from January 1 this year.

Even before January 1, Chinese laws required employers to sign contracts with their employees. In a majority of cases, however, contracts were signed typically for one or two years. To make matters worse, many companies didn't provide written contracts and didn't pay the workers on time - some of them didn't pay at all.