Beijing - Migrant workers and women suffer massive
discrimination in China, according to a report from the UN's
International Labour Organization (ILO) released in Beijing on
Monday.
The ILO's 2007 Global Report on Discrimination claimed that 60 per
cent of China's estimated 150 million migrant workers did not possess
the necessary household registration (hukou) to gain access to health
care, education or better jobs.
Women are also paid 20 per cent less than men in China, the report
said.
The gap is wider than in industrialized nations, where it lies
between 5 and 15 per cent, and 'probably has a lot of discriminatory
nature,' ILO China director Constance Thomas said in Beijing.
The director of international relations at China's Labour
Ministry, Liu Xu, pointed out the difficulties in implementing in the
labour market in practice the legal regulations against
discrimination.
China faced 'still an uphill battle,' Liu said.
The ILO report criticized the fact that in many cases migrant
workers did not have a contract, they often had to work longer hours
and encountered problems being paid on time.
They often fell victim to accidents at work but could not then use
health insurance or welfare services.
Migrant workers were responsible for 16 per cent of China's gross
domestic product (GDP) growth over the last 20 years, and were 40 per
cent of the urban workforce, the report said.
'Rural migrant workers constitute an asset for China's rapid
economic development, but suffering from discrimination they are
denied access to the wealth they helped to build,' the report said in
its summary.
Despite some recent relaxations in the traditionally strict hukou
system in China, which makes access to social welfare and schools
dependent on a person's registered address, China still lacked the
necessary institutional reforms in the reallocation of public
services, the ILO report said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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