Lawmaker calls for paid holiday for migrant workers

BEIJING—China needs a paid holiday system for the migrant workers totaling 150 million, so that they can choose the time for homebound journeys, a lawmaker said Sunday.
“Most migrant workers have to work all the year round and can only have a few days off during the Spring Festival. It becomes a real challenge for the festival transport season when most of them go home at the same time,” said Zhu Xueqin, one of the first three migrant workers to have been elected deputies to the National People’s Congress, the national legislature.
China’s migrant laborers from rural areas power the country’s fast-growing economy by working, often far from home, as construction and factory workers, restaurant staff, domestic servants and drivers. The huge, but usually disadvantaged group, however, face various problems, such as the lack of holiday, workplace injury compensation, health care and their children’s schooling in addition to pay arrears. Millions of such workers had to say “sorry” to their loved ones for failing to going back to their native homes during the past Spring Festival, because of the worst winter in half a century that disrupted traffic and claimed lives.
More than 12 million migrant workers chose to stay put in southern Guangdong Province, which has about 30 million such workers, according to the Guangdong Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security. Many of the 4 million migrant workers in Shanghai had also been stranded at the railway station before the Spring Festival, said Zhu Xueqin, who works in a clothing company.
Having been to the station twice before the Spring Festival, Zhu said she felt deeply sorry for the workers. “I am a member of them. People who are born and grow up in cities might not understand such a feeling,” she said. Since her election to the national parliament, Zhu has received numerous messages from other migrant workers, who want the NPC deputy to help solve their problems.
“As a representative of migrant workers, I feel duty-bound to speak for them,” she said.Chinese top political advisor Jia Qinglin delivered a report on the work of the country’s top political advisory body at the opening meeting of its annual full session which started here in the Great Hall of the People at 3 p.m. Monday. China should set up a committee to monitor the consumer price index (CPI) and make forecasts for the coming three to six months, a political advisor said here Monday. “China’s economy, which is sound in general, is shadowed by price spikes,” said Zheng Zukang, a senior professor with the School of Management of the Fudan University in Shanghai.
“We should enhance the research and forecast of prices in domestic and world markets so as to get ourselves better prepared for fluctuations,” said Zheng, a member of the National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body. Price hikes were among the “topics of most concern” of Chinese netizens who hope this year’s parliamentary session would address, along with housing, medicare reform and social security, according to an online survey by several leading Chinese websites including xinhuanet.com and sina.com. China’s CPI, a barometer of inflation, retouched an 11-year monthly high with a 7.1-percent growth in January. The CPI rose 4.8 percent in 2007, also the highest since 1997.
Pork prices, which had been considered as the major factor driving up the CPI in the second half of 2007, surged 58.8 percent in January, said the National Bureau of Statistics. “The price rises were largely influenced by many international factors,” Zheng pointed out. “Thus we need to have comprehensive information of major commodities in world markets, such as crude oil, coal, steel and food.” By analyzing the data, noted the professor, China could forecast the trend of price changes that would be helpful for adjusting the macro-control measures. “Although forecasting CPI index for the following three to six months is no easy work, it is feasible,” said Zheng, who specializes in mathematical statistics. Zheng also suggested increasing subsidies to the low-income social groups amid roaring inflation.
Following are the highlights of the Report on the Work of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which was distributed to journalists upon the opening of the session: Multiparty cooperation

—Xinhua