China is considering ban of "low compensation" labor contracts forced upon miners and hard-hat workers by employers who refuse to pay adequate compensation for serious industrial accidents, according to a draft law on work safety presented to legislators for a second hearing Friday.
"These contracts are being used by employers to evade taking responsibility for industrial accidents," said Li Boyong, vice-chairman of the Law Committee under the National People's Congress, when reporting to the NPC Standing Committee on the revision to the draft law.
"When workers die or are wounded in industrial accidents, these employers usually point to the 'low compensation' contracts and just pay a limited amount of money to the victims," he said.
To protect the rights and interests of workers, an amendment has been made to the draft law declaring such labor contracts invalid and banned. Employers will be fined from 20,000 to 100,000 yuan if they are found to have signed such contracts with their workers.
(People's Daily April 26, 2002)
