China Labour Bulletin Research Series: No.1 (2005)

DEADLY DUST

The Silicosis Epidemic among Guangdong Jewellery Workers and
the Defects of China's Occupational Illnesses Prevention
and Compensation System

China Labour Bulletin is pleased to release today the first in a forthcoming series of English-language research reports on major issues concerning workers' rights in China. The main focus of the new report - Deadly Dust - is on the case intervention work undertaken by CLB during 2004-05 to assist jewellery-processing workers who contracted chronic silicosis, an incurable disease, to win fair and appropriate compensation from their employers – mostly Hong Kong-headquartered companies. In the 100 or so cases monitored by CLB, the workers' health tragedies were directly traceable to their employers' disregard of China's occupational health and safety laws and to weak or non-existent enforcement by government agencies.
 
The plight of these jewellery workers is alarming and deserves urgent attention from government officials in China, the international trade union movement and also multinational companies that are investing or planning to invest in China. According to the Chinese government, pneumoconiosis - of which silicosis and the "black-lung disease" that afflicts coal miners are the two most common forms - is the single most prevalent occupational illness in China today, accounting for as much as 80 percent of all cases. According to the Ministry of Health, there have been more than 580,000 cases of pneumoconiosis in China since the 1950s, and some 140,000 workers are said to have died of the disease; the current number of sufferers is reportedly 440,000. 

As the same official source notes, however, owing to the widespread lack of health check-ups among Chinese workers, "Experts estimate that the actual number of cases is around ten times higher." Moreover, "A further 10,000 or so new cases are currently emerging each year." And according to the World Health Organization (WHO), even ten years ago the annual death toll from silicosis in China was over 24,000. All the signs indicate that, as a side effect of the country's rapid economic development, the scale of the occupational silicosis epidemic in China is getting worse each year.
 
In this report, we describe seven collective cases of this type in which CLB has actively intervened. The report highlights the severe damage frequently inflicted on workers' health by the demands and trajectory of China's current economic development; it reveals the many pitfalls of the country's administrative and judicial systems for those trying to uphold workers' right to a safe working environment; and it details the daunting procedural obstacles that an occupational illness sufferer in China must surmount in order to secure compensation.

Download the report in PDF format: http://www.clb.org.hk/fs/view/downloadables/Deadly_Dust_Dec2005.pdf

Contents

I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………2

The Silicosis Epidemic in Guangdong Province 
Procedures for Seeking Compensation for Occupational Disability 
Corporate Profits Put before Workers' Health 

II. Occupational Silicosis in Guangdong: Seven Collective Cases …………………8

1. Lucky Gems and Jewellery Factory 
2. Perfect Gem & Pearl Manufacturing Company 
3. Art's King Gems Arts 
4. Gaoyi Gems Company Ltd 
5. Yee On Yantian Gems and Jewellery Factory, and Taiyang Songyuan
 Gems and Ornaments Company 
6. Eryou Jewellery Materials Company 
7. Hao Xin Precious Metals Jewellery Factory 

III. Analysis of the Main Obstacles to Compensation………………………………23

Jewellery Factory Owners: Showing Contempt for Workers' Rights 
Inadequate Legal Safeguards for Occupational Illness Victims 
Main Defects of the Administrative and Judicial Compensation Process 
Local Governments: Neglecting the Health Rights of Workers 
The Official Trade Union: Failing to Defend Workers' Interests 

IV. Conclusions and Recommendations……………………………………………37

General Recommendations 
Reform of the Compensation Claims System 
Recommendations to the ACFTU 

Appendices…………………………………………………………………………41

1. Interview with Tang Manzhen, Wife of a Silicosis Victim 
2. CLB's Case Intervention Work on Behalf of Silicosis Victims in Guangdong 

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China Labour Bulletin
15 December 2005