Beijing launched on Wednesday an inspection campaign against irregular employment practices of workers in private enterprises in an effort to protect the rights of workers in the capital city.

The campaign will focus on labor contracts, social insurance, payments and working hours of laborers working in construction, clothing, catering and other services industries, said Zhu Yanping, an official with the Beijing Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau.

The most common problems are a lack of signed labor contracts, underpay or delayed payment and failure to pay social insurance fees, according to an inspector.

From January to April, the labor and social security authorities in Beijing handled 5,863 cases involving illegal employment practices, 93 percent of which occurred in the private sector, Zhu said.

On Wednesday, inspectors found 523 private enterprises were not following proper labour practices, according to Zhu.

Beijing has about 820,000 private enterprises or individual business owners, accounting 80 percent of the total enterprises in this city.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2007)