The courts in Guangzhou handle up to 4,000 cases involving women workers’ rights each year. They are now urging trade unions etc. to help improve rights protection on the ground. 

Officially, 943 million people in China have a pension. For most people however its value is minimal and the system will need broad reform if workers born in the 1980s are going to be guaranteed retirement protection.

On World Day Against Child Labour, 12 June, we examine the progress made in tackling child labour in China and the problems that remain unresolved.

Liu’s arrest was the first in a sustained crackdown on civil society labour activists that continues today with an estimated 50 activists currently in some form of detention.

The demonstration by more than 200 public school teachers in the southwestern county of Jianyang on 21 May was just the latest in a series of protests by teachers in China over a wide-range of issues including low pay, unequal pensions and other benefits, and wage arrears.

Workers in China’s domestically-owned private enterprises earned considerably less and experienced lower wage growth last year than those employed in the state-sector and companies with overseas investment, official data shows.

Staff at US-owned tech giant Oracle’s China Development Centre in Beijing have staged protests this week over the company’s plans to layoff at least 500 employees.

So far this year, only three out of 32 regional governments have increased their statutory minimum wage, although several others are expected to follow suit later in the year.