China's trade unions have urged employers to extend noon breaks
for migrant workers working on construction sites to prevent them
from suffering sunstroke.
"Migrant workers have the right to refuse to work in high
temperatures," said Liu Haihua, deputy director in charge of labor
security of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on
Monday.
The trade unions branches will also launch programs to improve
the working and living conditions for migrant workers and educate
them on how to prevent sunstroke.
The programs will focus on construction sites, high temperature
factories and other outdoor working sites, Liu said.
On July 4, a female worker from a factory in Fuzhou, capital of
southeast China's Fujian Province, passed out while working. She
was sent to a hospital and was diagnosed with sunstroke.
The woman suffered hyperventilation, a fever of 41.6 degrees
centigrade and low blood pressure. She died the next morning.
Her death brought attention to workers working in high
temperatures. Some Internet users posted comments saying that
China's insufficient labor safety standards were partly to
blame.
The only legal provision concerning labor security in high
temperatures is a regulation enacted in 1960, which fails to
provide any concrete measures to protect workers working at high
temperatures.
The ACFTU says it is conducting research on how to better
protect the rights of migrant workers and improve the regulations
concerning their working and living conditions.
In 2005, Shenzhen issued guidelines on labor security in high
temperatures, which stipulate that workers should stop working when
the temperature reaches 40 degrees centigrade and work no more than
four hours when the temperature reaches 38 degrees. It also says
that workers should stop outdoor work from noon to 3 PM when the
temperature reaches 35 degrees.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2006)