The Beijing Youth Herald (26 February, 2002) published an investigative report on the failure of many employers to pay their workers overtime wages for their work during statutory holidays. China's Labour Law (1994) stipulates that workers should be compensated with three times their normal wages if they are made to work during statutory holidays such as the first three days of the Lunar New Year. However, in the days after the New Year holidays, the newspaper received many complaints from workers that they had not been paid their legal overtime wages.

Most workers did not file any complaints with the government against their employers' unlawful practice, for fear of reprisals. They said they would rather lose their legal entitlements than their jobs. When asked by reporters, several officials from Beijing's labour inspection teams said they knew that the problem existed but could not do anything about it because workers did not come forward to lodge complaints.

(Source: China's news agencies)

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Online: 2002-02-26