The most obvious pattern in the distribution of industrial injuries is that they are closely related with workers’ professions or occupations. The frequency and severity of accidents varies between different industries. The ‘Nation-wide Analysis of Labor Demand in Spring of 2006’ issued by China’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security shows that the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is a main source of employment for migrant workers from rural areas. Moreover, the electronics industry & electrical trade is the main employer of migrant workers.

In order to present some basic information about work-related injuries in the electronics industry in China’s PRD, this report presents a statistical analysis of 489 work-related injury surveys conducted amongst injured workers in hospitals in Dongguang, Foshan, Guangzhou, Shunde, Zhongshan, and Huizhou (all cities in Guangdong Province) between August 2003 and October 2006.

 

A large proportion of work-related injury victims surveyed were young men with low education. This is similar to surveys conducted in industries such as hardware, construction and mining. Amongst the surveyed patients:

·     81.6% were male, and 18.4% female

·     they had an average age of 25 years

·     50.5% were below 23 years old

·     16% were less than 18 years old

·     65% were unmarried

In terms of education:

·     71.9% had graduated junior high school

·     18.9% had graduated senior high school or technical secondary school

·     1.6% had undertaken higher education

The survey also asked about these workers’ home province

·     24% came from Hunan

·     22% came from Sichuan

·     11.5% came from Hubei

Most patients were engaged in machine operations. The data reveals that victims were engaged in the following work:

·     53.2% in engine-starting and operating press machines

·     4.6% in machine repairs

·     1% in administration

·     0.8% in woodwork

·     37.6% other

Most injuries occured in small-sized enterprises with 100 employees or less, or in middle-sized factories with 101 to 500 employees. 73.2% of patients surveyed worked for factories with less than 1,000 employees - almost three times as many as patients in factories with more than 1,000 employees (26.7%). As for enterprise type, most of the work-injury patients were employed by local enterprises (38.6%) and Hong Kong invested enterprises (31.5%). Our survey found very few workers injured from European or American funded factories. This indicates that OSH is a much more serious problem in local Chinese private enterprises compared to joint-venture enterprise.

Low monthly income and wage arrears. The data shows that the average monthly income of the work-injury patients was 888.6 RMB. 55.2% earned less than 800 RMB per month. As if this was not bad enough, 12.8% of surveyed patients said that they cannot get their wages on time. 4.9% of them said that they ‘don’t know’ whether they can get wages on time.

Overtime is a major problem amongst low income workers. Surveyed work-injury patients were working an average of 6.7 days per week when they got injured. 73.8% of them were working 7 days a week. Each day, interviewed patients were working an average of 10.6 hours, with 61.8% working more than 10 hours a day. The survey also revealed a negative correlation between working hours and income. Generally speaking, the longer these people’s working hours were, the lower their monthly salary was. They had to always work overtime in order to increase their income, which may be the reason that caused work-related injuries.

Concern about OSH. 56.3% of work-injury patients declared that their enterprises did not provide training in OSH, and 49.4% of patients said that their employers did not supply personal protective equipment (PPE). According to the National Safety Inspection Department’s Guidelines for Strengthening Workplace Safety Training for Migrant Workers, migrant workers who work in high-risk industries should undergo more than 72 hours of in OSH before they start work, while those who work in construction should receive more than 32 hours training. Other workers should undergo more than 24 hours, followed by 8 hours training per year as they continue their jobs. However, many enterprises do not observe this regulation, which means that workers know too little about workplace dangers, and injuries frequently occur.

Often no labour contracts or social insurance. 60.4% of surveyed patients had signed no employment contract with their employer, and 35.2% of patients said that their employers had not purchased insurance for them. Without a contract and insurance, the rights of these workers cannot be protected by the laws and social security systems. Without a contract, it is very difficult to prove an employment relationship and pursue legal action for compensation. The fight to protect their rights will therefore be harder for these workers and cost them more. According to the ‘Survey of the costs borne by Chinese migrant workers to protect their rights’, the amount migrant workers spend trying to win their legal entitlements is on average three times higher than the compensation they receive.

Many injuries occur during the first three months in a new job, and during overtime. The data shows that nearly 40% of patients were injured in the first three months on a new job. 26.6% of surveyed victims were injured after one or more years at their jobs, which reflects the importance of OSH training. It is important to add, however, that the turnover rate on migrant workers is usually very high, and they rarely stay at one job for long periods of time.

The fatigue caused by overtime is a factor that cannot be overlooked. The data here shows that 41.9% of injuries occurred during overtime, among which 15.9% took place from 12pm to 8am. Therefore, late night overtime cannot be neglected as a contributing factor to workplace injuries.

Patients’ opinions of the cause of their injuries. 39.2% of the workers consider injuries to be ‘accidents’, which shows that they still consider the injuries to have been unavoidable. Meanwhile, quite a number of workers felt that ‘inadequate protection’ (21.8%) and ‘machine malfunction’ (18.7%) cause their injuries. They understand their injuries not as accidental events but as issues that are linked inseparably to OSH problems and the condition of machinery. Some workers blamed ‘carelessness of their own’ as the reason for injuries.

The high risk part of body: fingers. The data shows that 82.4% of the surveyed patients injured their fingers (44% right-hand fingers, and 38.4% left-hand fingers). 8.1% of injuries were to palms, wrists, and arms 4.4% to legs and feet, 1.7% to toes and 3.5% to other parts of the body.

96.1% workers were sent to hospital immediately after being injured, and the other 3.9% had their hospital admission delayed.

Nearly half of the patients surveyed estimate that they will need to spend no longer than half a month at hospital in total to treat their injuries (see Table 5). 39.7% of the workers ‘did not know’ how long it will take.

A few patients have to pay expensive treatment fee by themselves

The payment of hospital is average 7208.45RMB. 50% patients spent more than 4500RMB. The data also shows that 3.5% workers’ treatment fee are not entirely paid by employers. 1.5% workers paid by themselves, 0.4% of them paid together with employers, and 1.7% are paid in other ways.

Many surveyed workers were not receiving their regular wage while in hospital. The data showed that only 42.6% of workers were aware that they were continuing to receive their normal wage while they were in hospital. 27.6% were not receiving their normal wage. The remaining 29.9% did not know. There is clearly a problem that workers are not informed about such an important matter.

Less educated workers are less likely to have their employers pay their day-to-day expenses during their stay in hospital. Unlike the hospital fees, many victims’ day-to-day expenses were not paid by their employer. 16.2% of surveyed workers were fully paying their own day-to-day expenses. 1.5% were split 50/50 between employer and worker. 82.3% of surveyed workers had their day-to-day expenses paid by their employer. Table XXX demonstrates how that higher-educated workers were more likely to have their employer pay for their day-to-day expenses. Amongst injured workers who had only graduated from primary school, 75.7% had their day-to-day expenses paid for, compared to 87% of secondary high school graduates and 100% of college graduates. One can conclude that jobs with the worst working conditions are usually filled by workers with the lowest education. One can assume that educated workers have more bargaining power with employers.

Some patients had no-one to keep them company. 22.9% of workers said that they had no-one to keep them company while they stayed in hospital. Of all the personal carers for surveyed workers, 42.8% were co-workers, 23.6% were relatives, and 10.7% were hospital attendants.

Although the high-speed of development in the electrical trade and electronic industry in China’s PRD area has contributed to the economic growth in this area, it has also led to a problem of work-related injuries that cannot be overlooked. Our survey has led us to the following conclusions:

·     The injured workers surveyed were mostly young men with little education

·     Many were injured very soon after beginning a new job

·     There is a particularly high incidence of occupational injury in small and medium-sized workplaces

·     Just over 40% of workers blamed their injuries on OSH negligence or machine malfunction

·     Many do not have employment contracts or social insurance which will make it difficult for them to pursue compensation for their injuries

·     In most, but not all cases employers paid for victims’ hospital fees and day-to-day expenses

·     Many workers were not being paid their regular wage during their stay in hospital, while many did not know whether they were being paid or not

·     Almost all workers were sent to hospital immediately after their injuries

·     The basic rights of injured workers are violated, and they face many difficulties in protecting their legal rights.