Equal rights for migrants

Laborers from rural areas should receive same pay for same work and have access to same services as urban counterparts

Huang Shuhe, vice-chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, recently urged enterprises under the central government's management to standardize the labor management of migrant workers and strengthen management of their labor contracts in a bid to protect their legal rights and interests.

His remarks were in response to the ever-rising number of migrant workers employed in China's major State-owned enterprises, which reportedly employ a total of 6.8 million migrant workers. However, employees in these businesses managed by the central government are classified into two categories - regular workers and migrant workers - and a discriminatory "same work but unequal remuneration" policy has long been applied, with the regular workers paid three to five times the wage of migrant workers. Migrant workers also suffer discrimination and unequal treatment with regard to social security, healthcare, education, training and political rights.