Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A49-L3
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A49-L3
Release Date: January 22, 2004
发布日：2004年1月22日
Topic: China's Workers Face Unhappy New Year （by BBC）
标题：有关中国农工的新年报道
Original Language Version: English (Chinese version at the end)
此号以英文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
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On this Chinese New Year Day of Monkey, we wish you and yours the very best. Here, we also want to share with you stories of Chinese migrant workers from the countryside.
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China's workers face unhappy New Year
By BBC's Nick Machie
in Chongqing, China
The start of the Chinese New Year - or Spring Festival - on 22 January, is China's most important holiday.
This is a time when homes are festooned with brightly coloured scrolls and people buy new clothes.
It is also a time when hundreds of millions of Chinese migrant workers travel home to see their families in the countryside after having been away from home for most of the past 12 months, eking out a living in the big cities.
Just like during previous years, the better off are packing the planes and trains, the rest are hitting the road on China's network of long distance buses.
But this year, things are different.
Tens of millions of these people are owed billion of dollars. They have toiled for months or even years in the big cities, only to find their employers are unable to pay them.
Unpaid Debts
The Spring Festival is meant to be a time for families to pay respect to their forefathers, pray for good health and pay-off old debts.
But according to official figures published in December, employers owed an estimated 90 million migrant workers over $12bn.
Construction firms are among the worst offenders.
"The company is big, we've worked here for 4 to 5 months but we haven't been paid," said one migrant worker at a Chongqing building site.
As a consequence, those with no money for their families will not be going home.
Rough Existence
China may be in the midst of a property boom, but the country is being built on the cheap labourers, when they are paid, earn around $50 per month.
In the city, the damp, dirty building sites where they work are also their homes. The workers are fed on site and they usually sleep on scaffolding in basement parking lots of tomorrow's apartment and office blocks.
"We sleep on the site, eating and living and sleeping. We have a canteen, they give us a food voucher," one labourer said.
Competitive Advantage
Yet the migrants keep coming, not least because one unskilled worker here can earn 40% of the total income of a small village - when they are paid.
With many of China's construction projects financed by speculative investment, late payment is common.
Contracts often go to those companies willing to borrow the most and wait for their money.
So in turn their workers have to wait as well.
Legal Protection
The government has set about forcing contractors to settle outstanding pay packets.
Despite appearances, there are laws designed to protect the weak, explained Chongqing lawyer Li Rao Jun.
Workers can complain to the local government labour office if employers violate workers' rights, he explained.
Companies can be held liable if they reduce or delay without reason the employees salary, if they refuse to pay the workers their salary or overtime payments, or if the employees salary is less than the normal local salary, he said.
Debt Spiral
But in reality, the laws are regularly flaunted. Enforcement takes time. And the poorly educated migrants are often ignorant of their rights and wary of going to the authorities.
But China is so big, and the non-payment of migrant labour so widespread, that there seems no end to the plight of the poor, especially when there is an oversupply of labour.
The contractors themselves are caught up in a chain of debt.
This story comes from BBC with its link as: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3413279.stm
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中文版
Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A49-L3
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A49-L3
Release Date: January 22, 2004
发布日：2004年1月22日
Topic: China's Workers Face Unhappy New Year （by BBC）
标题：有关中国农工的新年报道
此号以英文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
若有阅读中文的困难，请直接访问我们的网站：www.weijingsheng.org
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今天是中国的大年初一。我们向大家拜年。并转载一则英国广播公司有关中国民工的新年报道。
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中国民工不幸的新年
BBC驻北京记者 林慕莲
中国政府宣布，去年的经济增长率达到了百分之九点一，是自从1997年以来最快的增长率。但是在中国经济突飞猛进的背后也有着它的丑陋的一面。
据估计，中国的雇主仍然拖欠民工大约一百二十亿元人民币的工资。而随着中国农历新年的到来，大批民工返乡休假。拖欠工资的问题就愈加显得突出。
中国总理温家宝最近下令所有公司确保它们的工人得到工钱。 但在现实中，这并不是那么简单的事。
在北京火车站，扩音喇叭正在告诉旅客去那里还能买到车票。上万人在排队等待上车。他们大都是进城打工挣钱的农民工。现在，他们带着一年打工挣来的血汗钱返乡过年。
火车离站时，车上响起了欢快的音乐。颇有节日气氛。但是对于一些民工来说，春节是他们一年中最难熬的时刻。
38岁的高明玉来自河南省。他今年春节不能回家过年，原因是他没有拿到工钱。他在2002年做的一个活到现在还没有拿到工钱。当时，他在北京的一个建筑工地上一干就是三个月。自那以后，他一直在争取得到他自己和另外50名民工应得的工钱，一共是一万五千块钱。
绝望之余，高明玉向一个非盈利的民间机构小小鸟热线求助。这个非政府组织专门帮助民工与国营建筑公司讨回拖欠的工资。
但是，一旦走进建筑公司的办公室，用不了多久，谈判双方就会发生争吵。
公司的代表说，没有必要见他，公司已经把工钱支付给工头了。
这是一个非常复杂的令人沮丧的故事。高明玉和其他民工在没有签署任何合同的情况下就接了这个活。现在，他们拿不出任何法律证据来证明他们的工钱被拖欠了。公司方面说，他们把钱付给了包工头，而且有字据证明这一点。
高明玉离开公司办公室，没有给在门外等待他的工友们带来任何希望。高明玉把这50名壮劳力从河南老家带到北京。现在，谁也没有拿到工钱，都被困在北京，身无分文，不能回家。
对高明玉来说，剩下的选择并不多。去年，他为女儿上学借了两千块钱，而利息时刻都在上涨。当他想到家里70岁的老母等着他回家过年的时候，禁不住潸然泪下。
高明玉的故事并不新奇。据估计，在中国处在他这种境地的人有数百万。正是这样的故事在一点一点积累着他们对中国领导人的怨恨。尽管，中国政府三令五申，要求发放拖欠工资，但仍不管用。
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