|
Home>News Center>China | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Unpaid wages still haunt migrant workers Unpaid wages still haunt migrant workers, according to two surveys. A quarter of 3,288 migrant workers questioned said they had not been fully paid, according to a survey released yesterday by the National Economic Research Institute under the China Reform Foundation . In 2004 alone, unpaid wages totalled an estimated nearly 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion), said Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of the institute. Altogether wages of around 100 billion yuan (US$12.5 billion) have gone unpaid in China in the last few years. Statistics from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security indicate there are 120 million rural migrant workers nationwide, more than 80 per cent of them working in cities. Most are male labourers under 40 from central and western parts of the country. They mostly work in the construction and manufacturing sectors. A think tank of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security also released a similar report last week. Citing Beijing as an example, it said that up to 3 billion yuan (US$375 million) was owed to 700,000 rural migrant labourers working on construction sites last year. Early last year the country began introducing a series of measures on employment and payment to safeguard the rights and interests of rural migrant workers. Last December, the Ministry of Construction announced more than 98 per cent of the 33.6 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) in unpaid wages had been settled. "It is up to the governments to address the problem," said Jiang Zhongyi, an expert with the Research Centre for Rural Economy under the Ministry of Agriculture. The think tank's report also says many employers deliberately withhold wages from their employees. An investigation by the National Bureau of Statistics last year discovered some companies charge their staff 20 to 30 per cent of their wages as a "deposit." But money was rarely paid back. The survey by Wang's institute says the average per capita annual income for migrant workers reached 9,236 yuan (US$1,140) last year, half of which was sent back to their hometowns, benefiting the local economy. The money sent home in 2003 accounted for 3.9 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, said Wang. Also, among the 3,288 surveyed rural labourers, 12 per cent said they have become self-employed and 3 per cent are now holding white-collar positions, Wang said. (China Daily 08/17/2005 page1)
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
