Interest of Migrant Workers Better Guaranteed

The rapid growth of urban economies in China has led to a huge demand for cheap labor, directly attracting surplus workers from rural areas. A recent report sponsored by the China Population and Development Research Center indicates that the number of migrant workers in China reached 230 million in 2011.

That's about 17 percent of the country's total population. The report also notes that the annual growth of the migrant population will be around 10 million during the 12th Five-Year Plan period from 2011 to 2015.

The huge growth in this population is causing problems such as the unfair treatment of migrant workers when it comes to employment. But according to Tong Lihua, one of the three lawyer delegates to this week's 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the complaints from migrant workers regarding unequal treatment in the cases he has handled have changed, and the changes to some extent reflect social development.

"In 2005, migrant workers not getting back pay and workplace injuries were more common than other issues. Now the focus of their attention in protecting their interests has shifted to demands for labor contracts or double pay. I believe these changes are positive and reflect that society is advancing."

Along with this social development, the Chinese government has been seriously working to implement a series of reforms concerning social policies, which signal further progress in the protection of migrant workers' interests. Zhang Zhanxin, a researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explains.

"A series of government policies made in 1995 concerning restrictions on the rural population to work in cities has been made invalid. Later, an implementation of the labor contract law in 2008 began to benefit migrant worker populations, which the labor law failed to cover. And China's social insurance law adopted by the government in 2010 ensures the coverage of social insurance for migrant workers."

Zhang also says migrant workers now enjoy more of the same opportunities as do their urban peers because of the diminishing negative impact of the household registration system, which excludes rural residents from the social security, pension, and education systems in cities, and has created a gap between rural and city employees regarding their respective rights and interests.

China's public policy has already changed significantly to address the problems of its floating rural population. Tong Lihua believes China's labor contract law has served as a positive example in addressing the problem as it supplements the labor law and therefore better protects laborers.

"The law dedicates more content to the protection of workforce interests, particularly those of migrant workers. For instance, employers must give them a signed work contract between the second and twelfth months after they begin work. Employers who retain migrant workers without a contract for more than a month must pay them double wages. This clause is unprecedented and very conducive to the protection of the workforce's interest."

On the other hand, experts believe the Chinese government must do much more to better accommodate the large number of migrant workers in cities. They say the issue will continue to be a major challenge in the coming decades.