Workplace safety is a major issue in China’s hospitals but the vast majority of collective protests by medical staff are triggered by wage arrears, the failure of employers to pay social insurance contributions and bonuses, or arbitrary changes in employment status.

A young labour activist best known for helping sanitation workers defend their rights was taken away by police in the southern city of Guangzhou on Tuesday afternoon, 17 December.

All workers employed in industries with a high risk of occupational disease will be covered by work-related injury insurance within the next three years under a new government program announced today.

Telecom giant Huawei has urged former employee, Li Hongyuan, who was detained in Shenzhen for eight months on extortion charges, to sue the company if he feels his rights have been violated.

Less than a third of China’s regional governments have increased or announced increases in the minimum wage so far this year in spite of a sharp increase in the cost of living.

Veteran labour activist Liu Shaoming is scheduled to be released from jail on 28 November after serving a four and a half year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power.”

Only 20 percent of the 18 million workers employed in high-risk industries in China such as mining, hazardous chemicals, fireworks and metal smelting have received formal vocational training.

A gas explosion at a coal mine in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi on the afternoon of 18 November killed 15 miners and injured another nine, China’s official media reported today.