The lack of legal compulsion and the impotence of many enterprise level trade unions are making the implementation of the Chinese government's collective wage consultation system an uphill struggle, union officials in the central city of Luoyang have conceded. Photo by Saad Akhtar@flickr.com
In the late 1990s, China’s state-run railways laid off hundreds of thousands of workers as part of economic rationalization drive. The Shenyang Railway Authority devised a novel scheme whereby workers were retired “on medical grounds” even though many had never taken a day’s sick leave in their lives.
CLB publishes a report on China's coal mining industry focusing on the industry’s appalling safety record, collusion between mine owners and local government officials, and the government’s system of post-disaster management, which is systematically eroding the rights of the bereaved. Photograph by Andi808
More than 120 million Chinese, about ten per cent of the population, carry the Hepatitis B virus. They suffer from widespread and often insitutionalized discrimination. CLB is currently helping bring nearly 20 anti-discrimination law suits in the mainland. Photograph by Nako
Beijing has set up a new central government department designed to promote and defend the interests of China’s more than 130 migrant workers. However, the Department of Migrant Workers’ Affairs will face an uphill task. Photo by onekell @ flickr.com