Legal fund set up for forgotten workforce
China Daily  Updated: 2006-01-23 05:49

A special fund has been established to provide legal aid for migrant workers struggling to obtain outstanding pay. The launch on Thursday in Beijing was rare good news for the embattled group.

A further positive development is that the State Council discussed and adopted in principle a document aimed at solving the problems of migrant workers on the same day.

Up to 1 million yuan (US$120,000) has been set aside for legal aid, while specific problems haunting rural labourers in urban areas have been placed on the agenda of the State Council.

It is of critical importance for the country's overall development strategy to guarantee that the 140 million migrant workers get their pay on time, that their standards of living and working conditions are improved and professional skill levels raised.

The State Council's document requires that a supervision and security deposit system be established to solve the problems of payment in arrears for rural workers once and for all. Minimum pay on an hourly basis is also required.

If these policies can be implemented in a down-to-earth manner by governments at various levels, migrant workers will not have to worry about their pay any longer.

What is worth mentioning is the document has emphasized that migrant workers should be trained professionally and biased policies that penalize them should be abolished.

Training will help workers secure higher pay and perform better. Higher skills will also help them establish greater self-confidence.

But specific rules are still lacking, in terms of who would be responsible for paying for training and what kind of certificates these workers would receive to testify to their skills.

The document also states that migrant workers should be covered by workplace injury security, basic healthcare should be guaranteed and efforts be made to work out a pension system to act as a crutch for their old age.

The aim of the document is to protect the rights and interests of migrant workers and to establish a mechanism that can guarantee the same rights as their counterparts in urban areas.

Rural residents falling further and further behind the cities has become an obstacle to the country's goal of building a well-off and harmonious society for all citizens. The central government has realized this and has cited it as a major task on its agenda in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

This new document is the first step towards fulfilling this task. More specific rules are expected to be released to ensure the policies the document has mapped out are put into practice at the local level.

In addition, the document has made it clear that endeavours should be made to develop the economies of small towns and cities so surplus rural labourers can find jobs in the vicinity of their homes.

The message is clear. The rapid increase in surplus rural labour in big cities has put pressure on urban areas and also led to unbalanced urban development.

So, on the one hand, big cities are required to do what they can to make life easier for migrant workers. On the other, the economies of small cities and towns need to develop to absorb more surplus rural workers.

Rome was not built in a day. It will take time to solve the problems faced by rural workers. In fact, efforts have been made in many cities to make things better for them.

The establishment of the fund to provide legal aid for migrant workers shows that non-government organizations are making a significant contribution.

Endeavours from all echelons of society will help in the search for solutions to the problems faced by migrant workers.

(China Daily 01/23/2006 page4)

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