Chinese labor officials are investigating an incident in which a
migrant worker in Shenzhen set himself on fire to protest against
his boss refusing to pay him what he said he was owed.
Yang Zengchao, 23, who worked in a handbag factory in Longgang
district of Shenzhen, poured white gas, an inflammable liquid
similar to gasoline, onto his body and set himself alight in his
manager's office last Sunday morning, said Liu Laiguang, director
of the district's Pinghu labor station.
Both Yang and his wife Liu Xiaoli, 21, started working in the
factory on Nov. 8, but the couple decided to return home to Yunnan
after being told their one-year-old child had fallen ill, Liu
said.
He said the couple last Saturday demanded the manager pay them
1,000 yuan, but the boss insisted they would only be paid after
working one whole month. No contract was signed between the boss
and the couple, he added.
"Yang might have committed the act to push and intimidate the
boss, not really to kill himself, but the lighter accidentally set
him on fire," he said.
The Shenzhen labor and social security bureau has launched an
investigation into whether the factory is delaying or withholding
the couple's pay.
The Yunnan provincial labor department established a special
investigation team, and sent staff to Shenzhen and to Yang's
hometown in Xuanwei of Yunnan to console his relatives.
The injured man is being treated in Shansha hospital in
Shenzhen. Doctors said he had suffered burns on 90 percent of his
skin, 86 percent seriously.
The hospital performed surgery on Yang on Tuesday. Doctors
expect the initial treatment to last three months and cost over one
million yuan. "The doctors said if there is any infection, his life
will be in danger," Yang's wife Liu sobbed and said, when contacted
by Xinhua by phone.
She recalled that, on the day of the incident, she left the work
building to answer a phone call and by the time she returned,
Yang's whole body was covered in flames and his skin was peeling
off.
She said the boss repeatedly refused to pay them enough money to
cover the cost of their trips home.
"The hospital is paying for the treatment costs now, but one day
we have to pay it all back, and there is no way my family will be
able to afford it. What can I do?" she said.
She said in four days since the incident, the manager has not
turned up at the hospital to visit. "I am so disappointed and we
hope the government can give us justice," she said.
An official with the Yunnan provincial labor department said he
urged local labor officials to prevent such incidents from
happening again, especially toward the end of the year when migrant
workers need to be paid in order to return to their hometowns.
(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2007)