DEADLY MINES A distraught coal miner waits for news of his brother, trapped underground in a flooded mine in December 2005. Mine managers frequently cover up tragedies in collusion with local officials.

FOREIGN MONEY Many private firms are foreign-owned, like this General Motors plant in Shanghai, or joint ventures with overseas investors.

INJURY TO ALL Vocal and effective workers’ health campaigns are emerging. The Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims has organised workers with occupational injuries and diseases.

China's workplace epidemics and
emerging safety campaigns

WORKING IN CHINA

Hazards 93 photofeature, January-March 2006

Rapid industrialisation has seen China emerge as an economic superpower. It has also brought hundreds of thousands of cases of occupational disease each year and tens of thousands of workplace fatalities.The International Labour Organisation puts the workplace fatalities toll in China at about 90,000 a year, a rate of over 10 work-related fatalities per 100,000 workers annually, or about 13 times the UK rate.

Coal mines alone claim 6,000 lives every year. The booming economy is greedy for coal, pushing up prices and production pressures. The official State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) reported that in 2005 the death toll from 3,341 incidents was 5,986. One in six of these deaths occurred in incidents where more than 30 miners were killed. China produces 36 per cent of the world’s coal, but 80 per cent of coal mine fatalities. Work-related ill-health affects more still.

China Hazards 93 Jan-Mar 2006 Order the photospread

More information

Organisations

• China Labour Bulletin
• Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims (ANROAV)
• Gemstone Campaign.
• Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC)
• Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee

Resources

‘Struggle for justice: Workers' compensation systems in the Asia Pacific region’. Price Outside Hong Kong: US$15 (including postage). From AMRC. www.amrc.org.hk
Email: omana@amrc.org.hk

‘Deadly dust’, China Labour Bulletin Research Series: No.1, December 2005. Free online.

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