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Last Updated: Oct 10, 2008 - 12:39:55 PM |
In a recent report by China Central Television on the plight of migrant
workers in Shengze (translated by CLB), Feng said his entire family had
just 1,300 yuan (US$190) a month to live on. They could afford to buy
daily necessities but nothing more. They no longer had enough money to
keep their seven year-old son with them in the city and had sent him
back to their hometown.
Their son is one of an estimated 58 million children of migrant workers
"left behind" in the countryside, most of whom have no direct parental
supervision. A new in-depth study by CLB details the wide-range of
social and educational problems faced by these children. They are more
likely to be victims of crime and a significantly higher proportion
suffers from psychological and behavioral problems caused by long-term
separation from their parents.
Subsequent studies will focus on the children who stay with their
parents in the cities and face systematic discrimination that limits
them to expensive and sub-standard schools and healthcare facilities.
In addition, CLB will soon publish a concise analysis of the Chinese
government's new policies and initiatives designed to improve migrant
worker residence rights, healthcare and education.
Many migrant workers are not prepared simply to sit back and wait for
the government to help them, and have taken matters in to their own
hands. On 1 September 2008, Huang Weimu walked into Guangzhou's Panyu
District Labour Bureau and demanded 55,334 yuan for the past five
month's work done at the Huizhi Garment Factory. Huang had worked
"undercover" at the factory, stealthily collecting evidence of labour
violations before exposing these abuses on the internet.
Migrant workers are clearly the most abused and exploited members of
the workforce. Indeed, some 90 percent of CLB's labour rights
litigation work involves migrant workers. From June 2007 to June 2008,
CLB and its partner organizations adopted close to 600 new labour
rights cases, involving more than 650 worker plaintiffs and concluded
about 315 cases in this period. The worker plaintiffs won in more than
95 percent of the concluded cases, obtaining compensation for
work-related injury, recovering unpaid wages, getting job
reinstatement, or obtained other benefits such as labour insurance
payouts. In total, the workers obtained 9.42 million yuan (about US$1.4
million) in compensation and other benefits.
A labour rights litigation case in China can be successfully concluded
for as little as US$500, with the average cost around US$700. If you
would like to support our ground-breaking litigation work and other
projects in defense of workers' rights in China, you can donate money
through Paypal, by cheque or wire transfer to CLB or Friends of China
Labour Bulletin, a U.S. tax-exempt organization registered with the
U.S. Internal Revenue Service under Article 501(c)(3) of the tax code.
All donations are very gratefully received.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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