The failure of China's Labour Law to adequately protect workers is mainly due to collusion between local government officials and the owners of privately-held companies, according to a Chinese academic specializing in labour relations and labour economics.

Critics of labour practices in China very often pointed to the problem of inadequate legislation or loose implementation of the Labour Law whenever they discussed the exploitation of Chinese workers' rights, said Li Qi, a professor at the School of Labor Economics of the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing and a senior research fellow at the City University of Hong Kong.

The problem of loose implementation of the Labour Law was not due to a lack of manpower and monitoring ability of the labour inspection agencies, Li said.

"The problem of loose implementation of the Labour Law is a systemic problem. Due to the biased economic policies adopted by some local governments, many private company owners enjoy privileges which exceed legal restrictions. These privileges thus create a kind of protective barrier or "tortoise shell" around private companies, insulating them from society and punitive action according to the law," Li said.

But the key problem was collusion between officials and businessmen, he said. "That barrier would be even stronger if local government officials collude with private companies."

Professor Li made his remarks during a seminar on "Labour Relations and International Labour Standards under Globalization" held at the People's University of China in Beijing on 2 April, at which 200 Chinese and overseas scholars discussed the problems of repeated exploitation of workers.

Coal mine safety was one good example of how abuse of the law and collusion between the public officials and private sector investors was threatening workers' lives, Professor Li said.

Although the central government had introduced more policies on coal mine safety in 2005 than in previous years, the number of coal mine accidents in which 10 people or more died rose by 34.9 percent and the total number of those who died in these accidents increased by 66.6 percent comparing with that in 2004, according to government statistics.

"What causes this increase in the number of large scale coal mine accidents while there have been so many (new) central government policies on coal mine safety? One of the major reasons is the collusion between government officials and business people. It largely reduces the effectiveness of any of the central government's policies," he said, adding that it would affect the implementation of the China's Labour Law and various labour standards if this problem was not tackled.

Source: China Youth Daily (3 April 2006)

18 April 2006