The New York Times covers a China Daily report on the growing number of labor disputes in China’s courts:
China Daily reported Wednesday that statistics from the Supreme People’s Court show 295,000 labor dispute cases brought to court in 2008, an increase of 95 percent from the previous year. That statistic is slightly higher than the 280,000 that Chinese news organizations had previously reported.
The figure in 2009 was 318,600, and it was 207,400 in the first eight months of this year, China Daily said.
“A lot of enterprises, especially export companies, are unable to satisfy workers’ requirements for higher wages,” Sun Jungong, a spokesman for the Supreme People’s Court, said at a news conference, according to China Daily.
“Some enterprises tend to ignore the protection of workers’ rights in order to maximize profits and minimize labor costs, with illegal unemployment and violations of employees’ legitimate rights being common,” Mr. Sun added.
