Labour protests witness rise in China amid ongoing economic challenges: Report

Labour protests in China have witnessed a rapid surge since August 2023 VOA News reported citing rights groups Li Qiang founder and executive director of China Labor Watch emphasized that in addition to Chinas economic slowdown issues such as the real estate sectors implosion and reduced manufacturing are influencing the increase in labour protestsLabour protests more than tripled in the fourth quarter of 2023 in comparison to the same period in 2022 according to New Yorkbased international rights group Freedom Houses China Dissent Monitor which tracks protests in China According to analysts the unrest is related to poor working conditions and Chinas ongoing economic difficultiesThe China Dissent Monitor recorded 777 labour protests in China between September and December 2023 in comparison to 245 in the same period of 2022 VOA News reportedIndependent data from the Hong Kongbased China Labour Bulletin which promotes Chinese workers rights recorded an additional 183 protests between January 1 and February 3 including 40 in Guangdong province aloneKevin Slaten who leads the China Dissent Monitor said worker protests are often related to disputes over wages and occupational safetyIn an email statement to VOA News Slaten said The longterm problems underlying these disputes in China are poor enforcement of labour protections and a complete lack of independent and effective labour unionsSlaten said the majority of the protests that China Dissent Monitor has analysed are small in size with half having less than 10 participants He noted that 40 per cent more had protesters between 10 and 99 according ot VOA News reportIn an email statement to VOA News New Yorkbased China Labour Watch founder and executive director Li Qiang said Chinas highlevel economic problems ultimately set the foundation of the increase in labour protests this year He added Due to the decrease of manufacturing orders among other things a lot of companies face financial challenges that trickle down to workersSlaten said construction workers are especially likely to protest particularly seeing the major difficulties faced by the Chinese real estate sector especially the bankruptcy of major property developer Evergrande GroupSlaten stated Chinas relative economic slowdown and particularly an ongoing crisis in the property sector and its impact on construction workers is contributing to this surge in labor dissentIn 2023 China State Councilor Shen Yiqin warned of severe punishments for employers who willingly make delays in paying their workers Shen requested local governments to make sure all workers received their pay on time Shen made her remarks at a national teleconference on wage arrears before the the Lunar New Year holidayLiu Jun a migrant from Sichuan province who works in construction in Xinjiang said he has been waiting for nearly two months for his salarySpeaking to VOA Mandarin Service Liu said Its almost the end of the year and I havent been given any money yet Liu added This is all the hardearned money of the construction workers and they should be paid after the work is doneMa Hui a construction worker from Hebei province who also works in Xinjiang said her boss did not pay workers for threemonths in 2023 and only provided workers with noodles salt and light soy sauce to eatSpeaking to VOA Mandarin Ma said During that period I had no living expenses for several months and my boss wouldnt lend me any money Ma added I didnt even have money to buy basic daily necessities such as toilet paper and toothpasteLi said local governments shortfalls in budget are stopping them from providing aid to migrant workers Li wrote In the past the Chinese government has been investing capital annually to alleviate companies liquidity pressure and reduce the overall number of wage arrears towards the end of the year VOA News reportedAdditionally they would also strengthen the implementation of their monitoring apparatus to combat laborrelated disputes But this year the situation shifted as the Chinese government especially on the local level faces financial pressures Li addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever