If you ask a factory worker or a waitress in Dongguan if they have had a pay raise recently, they will either stare at you blankly or just burst out laughing. For all the hype in the Chinese and international media about 30 percent wage inflation and a “famine” of more than one million labourers in the Pearl River Delta, the reality for migrant workers remains the same; low pay, long hours and no job security.

Su Huawen taught in the village primary school he helped set up in 1953 for nearly 50 years. He taught mathematics, Chinese, music and physical education. He was admired and respected by students and parents alike, so much so, villagers addressed him as “Scholar” (文公). Today, 78-year-old Su is in poor health and lives dire poverty with hardly any income or pension because the local government in Leizhou, southwesten Guangdong, has refused to pay him the 12,000 yuan he was owed after being forcibly retired in 2000. Su has been waiting ten years for his money and has not seen one cent.

A university degree is supposed to provide students from poor rural families with a good job, high status and, crucially, a residency in the big city that would allow them to start their own family. However, the reality for today’s graduates is very different.

As the Chinese economy recovers, an influential magazine calls on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management. Photo. Onekel

CLB director Han Dongfang argues that moves by the authorities in Shanxi to close and merge small privately-run mines with larger state-run mines will only improve coal mine safety if miners are allowed to play a key role in safety management. Photograph by andi808.

On 27 July, the municipal government of Xian formally banned a local workers’ rights group that was seeking, but never obtained, official recognition of its status as an enterprise restructuring watchdog.

Outside the main entrance to the Xuri electronic toy factory in Shaoguan, scene of the mass brawl in June between thousands Han and Uighur employees that left two dead, there is a large red banner proclaiming 手拉手共创平安 心连心构建和谐 (hand in hand bring about peace together, hearts beating as one realize harmony). Peace has indeed returned to the factory that triggered the deadly riots in Xinjiang on 5 July, but, workers say, that is only because the Uighur employees have all been removed from the premises.

The government’s revisions to its Work-related Injury Insurance Regulations will go a long way to giving workers the insurance cover and legal protection they need, but lack the clout to force employers to comply.

The death of Chen Guojun at the hands of angry workers at the Tonghua Steel works on 24 July prompted a flurry of comment and speculation in the Chinese media. There was one issue however that everyone seemed to agree on; namely the need to better protect the rights and interests of workers during the process of state-owned enterprise reform - the only question that remained was how.

In July 2009, Zhang Haichao voluntarily underwent an operation to open up his chest in order to prove he was suffering from the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis. Photograph of Zhang by Yanzhou Metropolis Daily