You can't miss them. They're among China's hardest working people: the 40 million or so farmers-turned-construction-workers who have traveled from their homes in the countryside to find a new life of "prosperity" in Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Day after day they labor, hard physical work, only to sleep for a few hours in a room of eight to 10 people. Some work seven days a week, whether it's freezing cold or hellishly hot outside, toiling under backbreaking conditions. They're the people we see dangling from the steel and concrete structures that will someday be comfortable office space to those of us who will benefit from China's still-booming economy.

But how are they treated on the job? It turns out that many have had no formal safety training on construction sites other than a few words of encouragement from veteran migrant workers like themselves. And most toil without the proper safety gear to avoid unnecessary accidents.

Without these men (and a few women), this nation's booming construction sector -- the fodder for much of its economic growth -- would come to a startling halt. But from just January to March this year alone, 184 such unfortunate laborers have died in 150 accidents on construction sites across the nation.

Most were unnecessary tragedies in which a little training, perhaps some safety gear, and attention to work site rules might have made a difference, according to officials attending a safety seminar held last week in Beijing. In fact, a lack of safety awareness among such migrants and inferior equipment are thought to be the two biggest safety threats to workers in the Chinese construction industry, officials at the event, jointly sponsored by the State Administration of Work Safety, the Ministry of Construction and the International Labor Organization, said.

As many as 1,144 construction-related accidents were reported nationwide in 2004, causing 1,324 construction workers' deaths. While those figures were down 11.46 percent and 13.12 percent respectively from 2003, the problem is still woeful, and the construction sector is the third biggest industrial killer in China, following transportation and mining -- something which is nothing to brag about.

And at construction sites in China it is still common to see workers armed with nothing more than a hard hat.

Though some work sites are better than others, one can still find workers crawling like spiders up the sides of concrete-and-steel structures -- 15-plus floors above the ground -- wearing no protective safety cables.

Why are such situations allowed to continue?

It is because companies still attempt to reduce costs and pursue a policy of maximizing profits. To some, workers are in cheap supply -- they are plentiful and available and don't ask questions. Construction employers supply workers with the most minimal, poor-quality and least expensive safety equipment around, experts say. It is cheaper to pay occasional compensation to a worker's family than it is to supply all the workers with basic safety equipment. Sad, but true.

While laws on work safety and the prevention and control of occupational diseases have been promulgated by the Chinese government, along with a new regulation on work safety management, it is now time to aggressively institute them. An effective safety supervision system must be put into place.

It's a process that must be transparent and tough. Irresponsible companies which endanger their workers' lives must be held accountable. The nation's migrant construction workers who come from far and wide -- who represent the best of China's spirit of labor and energy and drive for prosperity -- deserve no less.

(China Daily May 10, 2005)