During the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, All China Federation of Trade Unions suggested that the congress should include the “crime of salary defaulting” in the criminal law to define the criminal liabilities for bad conducts like absconding to evade salary payment. Safeguard of rights and interests of rural migrant workers became a focus again soon. On March 13, CCTV’s News Survey broadcasted Who Safeguards the Rights of Rural Migrant Workers to focus on the successful measures of Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions for safeguarding the rights and interests of rural migrant workers.
Huang Zhiping, secretary of the CPC municipal committee, answered the question on how to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of rural migrant workers, saying that after years of practice, Yiwu had summed up the experience of forming a rational and effective work mechanism through Party committee leading, government support, trade union operation and active participation by enterprises and all social circles to fully safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Yiwu’s migrant constructors.
Every year, up to 1.3 million rural migrant workers get employed in Yiwu, who are constructors and wealth of the city. In the past decade, Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions has gradually explored a new road of legally and effectively safeguarding the rights of Yiwu’s migrant workers through surveys on and practices in employment relations throughout the city from the angles of staff, enterprises and the society.
In October 2000, Yiwu took the lead to establish a legal institution of right safeguard under the leadership of the grass-roots trade union in China; in 2008, Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions was granted the Government Innovation Award for having created the “socialized” right safeguard mode, and its service mode was converted from active settlement of disputes to precautions against employment disputes. From 2000 to 2009, the Legal Center for Employee Right Safeguard Center, Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions accepted a total of over 4,600 complaints, including 219 cases of arbitration agency and 314 cases of action agency, and recovered wages and saved economic losses of over RMB 21 million, becoming the “spokesperson” for safeguarding the rights of Yiwu’s migrant constructors.
