Occupational health and safety in China

Abstract

Page 8 Volume 22 Issue 4 2015 INTERNATIONAL union rights FOCUS ❐ LABOUR SITUATION IN CHINA Workers’ Rights The 2002 Work Safety Law provided for significant worker rights including the right to know about hazards and to suggest remedies, the right to inform against, criticise and accuse, the right to refuse unsafe work, to stop dangerous work and leave the workplace, the right of protection from discipline, the right to compensation, and the right to education and training. The Work Safety Law specifies that all labour contracts must clearly identify and cover work safety issues, including references to measures to prevent occupational hazards and details of any statutorily required insurance program relating to workplace injuries.Expanded requirements for worker education and training are in the amendments. This education and training must be conducted and logged (content, time, attendees and evaluation ) by the safety supervisor so government supervisors can evaluate compliance. Employers are required to ensure dispatched workers and interns receive education and training. Role of Trade Union Article 7 of the Work Safety Law stipulates the trade union’s role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers in work safety and in supervising work safety by making arrangements for employees to participate in the democratic management of and supervision over work safety in their workplace. Employers must solicit opinions from their trade unions in formulating or revising rules and systems related to work safety. Article 52 of the statute gives extensive rights to the union to participate in and have input into the design, construction and commissioning of safety facilities and construction projects. When unions discover life-threatening situations they have the right to put forward suggestions for remedies and the employer must respond in a timely manner. They have the right to demand employers set right their violations of work safety laws and regulations and infringements of workers’ rights. The union has the right to advise the employer to rectify dangerous situations, rectify orders or directions that violate safety rules or regulations or create risk and rectify hidden dangers that may lead to accidents. The employer must give a timely reply to the union’s advice. If workers’ lives are threatened, the union has the right to suggest organised evacuation of the workplace and the employer must deal with such situations immediately. The new amendments expand the union’s role to participate in accident investigations and to suggest the authorities investigate the people involved. The industrial revolution that took Europe centuries to develop, took only decades in China, but at what price? CATHY WALKER, retired Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Director, Canadian Auto Workers Union (now Unifor) C hina’s ‘economic miracle’, which began in 1979 with the ascension of Deng Xiaoping as head of the country, has been achieved with great cost to China’s workers. The industrial revolution that began in Britain with the Enclosure Acts forcing peasants to the cities to become the new industrial proletariat was at a snail’s pace by comparison. What took Europe centuries to develop, China took only decades. But what a terrible price to pay for the more than 250 million Chinese peasants who migrated to the cities in search of work after the end of the commune system in the countryside in 1980. We have all heard how many Chinese workers are killed at one time in coal mine explosions, factory fires and the like. The statistics mirror the early days of industrial development in Europe and North America. According to SAWS (State Administration of Work Safety), in 2013 there were more than 270,000 accidents in which 2,549 people died. SAWS also reports that the death rate for every million metric ton of coal produced in 2013 was 0.288, 10 times higher than the death rate in developed countries. The death rate from catastrophic incidents is dwarfed by deaths from occupational disease, especially from coal miners’ pneumoconiosis (black lung). According to China’s Ministry of Health, between 2005 and 2010 there were 750,000 cases of occupational disease. And occupational disease is notoriously underreported in China as it is in every country. New OHS Laws and Amendments It is therefore heartening to see that there...