Stronger legal protection for workers can cut overwork deaths

A REPORT BY CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION estimated that 600,000 people in China die of overwork every year, the most in the world. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

There have been numerous examples of people dying from overwork in China. A typical example is a colleague of ours, who often worked till late at night. He fell ill at the beginning of last year and died after being in a coma for a long time.

The man's family received compensation from the company, but there is no government compensation because his death is not considered an industrial injury.