The Chinese government enacted a series of labor laws in 1992, 1994 and 1999 that strengthened the rights of workers and made legal challenges easier. Since the 1990s, it has also permitted the introduction of locally run organizations that advocate everything from environmental protection to labor rights.
“Many young people think we should fight for our rights,” said Qiu Jie, an advocate at the Labor Law Service Center.
Though it is difficult to get labor disputes into court, once they are there, labor lawyers say judges are sympathetic to their worker-clients. Laborers won 15,462 of 18,028 cases (about 86 percent) that were resolved in Shanghai last year, according to government figures.
By the numbers
18,028: Number of labor suits resolved in Shanghai in 2004.
600: Percentage increase in suits resolved in 2004 compared with 10 years ago
86: Percentage of suits won by workers
$2,035: Average yearly income in Shanghai
Sources: Chinese government, Shanghai Statistical Bureau, Professors Hualing Fu and D.W. Choy, City University of Hong Kong
