ONLINE PETITION Rights for Shenzhen’s “Silicosis Workers” To: Shenzhen Government, Guangdong Province, China On November 6th 2018, over 300 workers who previously worked in the drilling and blasting industry came to Shenzhen to start a new round of protests. These former drillers and blasters from Leiyang, Miluo, and Sangzhi in Hunan Province worked in Shenzhen since the 1990s. They were employed drilling passages through rock formations, working without formal labor contracts, social insurance, pre-training workshops and precautionary measures. As time passed, they found themselves diagnosed with silicosis. This avoidable disease is directly the result of their previous work, where employers neglected to monitor and improve air quality to prevent the illness. Without documented proof of their employment, however, these workers struggle to obtain compensation for their occupational illness. The result is that these workers suffer, shouldering the exorbitant costs of managing a disease for which there is no cure. Even when they pass away, these workers’ suffering continues as they will leave behind wives and children with next to nothing, or possibly even tremendous debt. This is the 9th time this year that these workers have come to petition the government. With no money, workers had no option but to sleep on the floor. On November 7th, they marched to government office, shouting slogans like “We want to eat!”, “We want to see the doctors!” and “Shenzhen is doing nothing!” The police beat the workers up and used pepper spray that caused many workers and their family members to fall to the ground. Some were injured seriously enough to be sent to the hospital. On November 8th, the government rejected workers’ suggested compensation plan. The situation of these victims of silicosis is the consequence of corporate violations of labor law, including avoiding the requirement to sign proper contracts with workers and pay mandatory social security benefits. It also reflects the governments’ ineffective enforcement of labor rules and regulations. Workers should not be the ones to bear the consequences of this, and it is indecent that workers should lose their lives over these failures. To ensure workers’ basic human rights, we therefore demand the following of the Shenzhen government: We demand an immediate apology for the violence used against workers in the municipal government building and that the government take responsibility for finding and punishing the perpetrators of the violence. We urge the Shenzhen Social Insurance Bureau and other related departments to urgently design a compensation plan for workers suffering from silicosis. Before the plan is implemented, the government should also provide workers with free medical treatment and adequate financial support. We urge the Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau to compensate workers’ families and support their living expenditures for the losses they have incurred from workers’ silicosis. Initiators Pun Ngai, Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong Chris Chan, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Jenny Chan, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Take action: Sign the online petition (to be updated, as of […]
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