[Broadcast on 20 May 2006]
In Wuhan city, Hubei province, there was an 18-year-old female worker at a privately owned garments factory. Because her father died early she left home to work before she was even 16 years old. The garments factory boss hadn't signed any contracts with his workers, either individually or collectively, and as a result, whenever workers' output was higher than usual, he would simply cut the workers' piece rate. That is to say, the longer the workers worked, and the more they produced, the lower the piece rate went. In short, the hard earned reward for extended work time and production was wiped out by the downward pressure on the piece rate. The workers might eventually get their hands on their salary, but they couldn't get any increase because they produced more.
On account of this issue, the female worker made several complaints in front of her fellow workers which attracted the boss's dissatisfaction. Then, after she resigned, the boss refused to pay her salary arrears. In a telephone conversation, the elder brother of this female worker introduced me to the facts of the case:
Brother: This thing happened in this way: when the Lunar New Year festival came round my younger sister was already thinking that she didn't want to continue working there. They were doing sewing work which was remunerated by a piece rate, but they didn't have any contract signed, nothing at all. That factory's name was "Wuhan Fengguang Drawnwork Co. Limited".
Han Dongfang: It's a private enterprise?
Brother: Yes, a private enterprise.
Han: How big is it, what's the scale?
Brother: If you take the scale from registered capital, that's about one or two million (yuan).
Han: How many workers?
Brother: They have 30 workers.
Han: How long has it been in operation?
Brother: From the very beginning, around 30 years.
Han: What products do they make?
Brother: The kind of children's clothes you can find in the shops; they sell their brand in our Wuhan New World Shopping centre.
Han: How long did your sister work there? When did she start?
Brother: She started working there last October.
Han: So after working through until the Spring Festival (the Lunar New Year) this year, she didn't want to work there any more?
Brother: She didn't want to work there, and she talked about it with the boss, but she didn't go. But at the Lunar New Year she didn't receive her salary.
Han: Why didn't she want to work there?
Brother: Because at that place they were being exploited in their work; making garments should have been remunerated according to a piece rate. Every night they did overtime until 9 pm, and however many they made, that was how much they should get.
Han: What time did she start work each day?
Brother: In the morning, usually around 7 am.
Han: How long did she get for her lunch break?
Brother: About one hour for lunch.
Han: And then, in the afternoon, work straight through to dinner?
Brother: Work to around 5pm, then they had again had a one hour food break, then they would work through to 9pm.
Han: So in the course of a day, if you add it up, they worked about 12 or 13 hours?
Brother: They didn't just get a low piece rate, there was also continual pressure on the rate to go lower. For example, if the price for making one particular item of clothes was 3 yuan (for an upper garment;) let's say, in October you got 3 yuan a piece, by November they would say the price of the clothes had gone down, they would give you just 2.8 yuan a piece. If you made a lot of garments, working at a fast speed, then they would just push the price further down.
Han: It means that they would push down the list price. If you worked fast, if they found you were earning more money, they pressed down the price?
Brother: Right, they didn't want you to get too much.
Han: Now if that was the situation, on average how many hours did they work each day?
Brother: At the very least they worked more than 10 hours.
Han: Did they get any weekends off, or Sundays?
Brother: Very rarely would they get weekends off. Only if a young girl really couldn't stand it, if she said to the factory management: "It doesn't matter if you agree or not, we want to rest," were the factory leaders compelled to agree.
Han: Roughly on average how often would this happen?
Brother: In a month at most there would be 2 days.
Han: So there had to be this kind of demand before any rest was granted?
Brother: You had to go to the factory leaders and take the initiative to fight for it, otherwise they would never offer you a rest.
Han: How about holidays?
Brother: There was basically no holiday; it was just like at most at 1 October (National Day) or 1 May (International Labour Day) holidays they would get one day.
Han: So on average, as they worked for such a long time, how much could the workers there get in a month?
Brother: Not much. In one month they would get around 700 or 800 yuan, and quite often just 500 or 600.
Han: How old is your sister?
Brother: She's just 18 this year.
Han: Only 18, just graduated from school?
Brother: Because the living situation of our family was quite lacking - our father died young - when my sister went out to work, she was still just a child. She wasn't even 16 when she went out to work.
Han: Your father died young, so she stopped her studies and went out to work?
Brother: Actually there was no alternative.
Han: Well when she started out, as not even a 16 year old, what work did she do?
Brother; Before, when she wasn't even 16, she was also doing garments work, but at that time my wife could still accompany her; you see I'm 12 year older than my sister - this year I'm 30.
Han: Now for girls like her at this factory, was there any sort of labour insurance, such as medical insurance, pension insurance, this kind of thing?
Brother: Absolutely none, they didn't even have contracts. Last time I pasted a note about this on the Internet, because my sister at that time was asking for her money, they didn't give her any money, my sister was fired, and then she found some work at another factory. She went to the factory demanding three days money, but at the time she wasn't going to the factory to work, and the factory said that she had been removed from the rolls, and didn't pay her salary. She didn't get the money she had earned there, and she had also lost her job.
Han: Okay. Can you describe in detail the whole business of the salary arrears from the beginning to the end, how it developed?
Brother: They worked for 45 days, and just got 30 days salary.
Han: That is to say, they withheld 15 days salary?
Brother: After that they let it be known that if people wanted to leave they just had to write a notice and hand it to the management, then they could leave.
Han: Could they get their 15 days salary?
Brother: That depended on whether the boss was happy or not; if he was happy they could get it. At that time my sister, because of the piece rate issue, was regarded as being one of the difficult ones; she'd talked back to them, saying that they shouldn't hold back workers' money. The manager had some ideas about her, because she had made a fuss about this business. Later my sister wrote a note asking to leave, and the manager didn't clearly indicate if he accepted it or not. My sister waited for a week without any confirmation, and then left on her own.
Han: When did this happen?
Brother: Around the middle of April.
Han: At the time, was she still going to work?
Brother: Yes.
Han: So that is to say, a week in advance she wrote a note requesting to leave, but her boss didn't give any response.
Brother: Right; she waited a week but there was no answer, and then she just left. At the end of the month, she went to get her salary and the factory management said that they wouldn't give her the salary. Finally she said she just wanted three days, but at the time of the Lunar New Year festival, every worker got 100 yuan, as their end of year bonus. Around the time my sister wanted to leave, the factory management gave the money to other people, and she told them she wanted her share as well. After that, the work group manager beat my sister, then she reported to 110, the on-duty neighbourhood police came and mediated, and my sister went to the hospital and spent 70 yuan, which the factory manager paid for her. At that time I said to the factory manager on behalf on my sister, "You did something wrong, at the very least if you beat someone you must apologize. You just pay some medical treatment fees as compensation. Then, what is the meaning of having the laws?" But he said, "I will teach my factory workers." I said, "Otherwise, you pay my sister's salary." He said, "No way; there are so many people at the factory that, if I pay her salary, how can this factory carry on." I argued with them for ages, telling them that they had behaved inappropriately and they just ignored me. Finally I said to them, "Your factory is illegal, you didn't sign any contract with your workers, you don't have anything, and overtime is too long." He said, "Well, if I am illegal, you can go and complain about me to the labour bureau." I said, "Okay, I will definitely complain about you to the labour bureau." After that I sent my sister to the labour bureau for that area to tell them about the situation, but the inspection team said we would have to wait 60 days for a response. So I waited and waited, but I never thought think you would give me a call; I think that the media can be very powerful.
Next Tuesday at the same time, please listen in again when this brother of a Wuhan garments factory worker tells me about his experience of reporting this case to the labour bureau.