Today is the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers and May Day is approaching. According to statistics from the State Administration of Work and Safety, about 127,000 people died in about 718,000 industrial accidents in 2005, of which about 6,000 miners died in coal mine accidents.
This appalling record suggests that there is a very low awareness among employers in China about ensuring occupational health and safety for their workers. The problem is highlighted by the huge number of coal mine accidents and a serious spread of occupational diseases, such as silicosis among gemstone workers and cadmium poisoning among battery workers in Guangdong.
One of the major problems in occupational health and safety issues in China is that employers always refuse to give reasonable compensation to victims and their families when accidents occur. Families of victims of coal mine disasters, such as the Dongfeng Coal Mine accident in Qitaihe city in Heilongjiang in which 171 miners were killed on 27 November 2005, said they were pressured by the mining company to accept a compensation of 200,000 yuan, although they were not satisfied with amount. (For further information, see the English transcripts of interviews with victims' families done by our director, Han Dongfang, at: http://www.clb.org.hk/public/contents/article?revision%5fid=37622&item%5fid=37621)
Some workers from gemstone factories in Guangdong told China Labour Bulletin that the factories they worked at had operated for many years without installing any ventilation and dust extraction systems. Since the workers were not given any safety training or protective gear, they contracted the incurable lung disease, silicosis. Very often, when workers felt unwell or showed signs of illness, they usually had to pay for any medical examinations and hospital fees by themselves. When they were diagnosed with silicosis and they sought their employers' permission to obtain an expert medical appraisal – an obligatory step in pursuing occupational illness compensation claims – such requests were usually denied, along with any requests for reimbursement of medical expenses or other financial assistance. (For more details about jewellery workers' compensation claims, see our research report "Deadly Dust")
To mark the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers and May Day this year, China Labour Bulletin calls on work safety officials and employers in China to respect workers' rights to compensation in accordance with the requirements of the PRC Labour Law and relevant regulations on occupational health and safety.
28 April 2006