All construction companies in Beijing must now buy injury and
medical insurance for their workers, or face fines.
Following the death of thousands of construction workers in
recent years?-- many of them migrant workers?-- firms
will need the compulsory insurance from June.
"Any employer who fails to buy the two insurances for their
employees will be subject to a fine of at least 10,000 yuan," said
Wang Dexiu, deputy director with the Beijing Municipal Labor and
Social Security Bureau.
Injury insurance will cost 14 yuan (US$1.7) per worker per
month, while medical insurance will cost 28 yuan (US$3.4) per
worker per month.
A recent survey of 71,000 migrant workers from 15 construction
companies in Beijing's Haidian and Fengtai districts showed that
less than two in every 100 have insurance.
Nearly 10,000 migrant workers have died of work-related
accidents in Beijing in the past five years, accounting for 20
percent of the working injury death toll in the city.
Nationwide, the construction industry in most of the big cities
in China absorbs the majority of the country's migrant workers.
The implementation of the compulsory insurance policy is
estimated to cover some 1.3 million construction workers in
Beijing.
"Beijing is now witnessing its busiest construction period since
the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949," said Liu
Zhaoyuan, chief engineer of the Beijing Municipal Construction
Commission.
The sound economy and the push for the 2008 Olympic Games mean
the city is carrying out a lot of construction work, including
buildings and the urban transport system.
It has been reported that more than 120 million square meters
are under construction in Beijing this year, involving 1.3 million
workers.
Farmers-turned-workers are among the most vulnerable population
in Chinese cities. Not only are their living standards far below
the urban average, but also many engage in high-risk occupations,
doing the work that their urban peers do not want to do.
According to Chen Zhi, a doctor with Beijing 120 First-Aid
Center, a large number of calls to the service are from
construction migrant workers.
"Furthermore, their injuries are nearly always fatal," Chen
said.
Most of the cases used in Chen's first-aid training classes are
concerning the terribly wounded migrant workers.
(China Daily May 9, 2005)