工Overall Situation of the Present Safety Production in China
China attaches great importance to safety production work and endeavors to protect workers' safety and health. As a result, the state has laid down the safety production guideline of “safety being the most important, prevention holding a dominant position and practising a comprehensive management” and has established and improved a safety production supervision and management system under the unified leadership of the government, with government departments' supervision and inspection, with the full responsibility undertaken by enterprises, with supervision and participation by the masses and with the support of public opinions. The state and the local governments at all levels have founded safety production committees. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the local trade union organizations at various levels are all members of the safety production committees at the same levels and play a very important part in these committees.
Coupled with the economic development and social progress, the safety production work in China has been continually strengthned. Over recent years, the state has successively laid down a large number of laws, regulations and policies on labor safety and hygiene, thus a system for safety hygiene management, inspection and supervision in line with the functioning of the market economy has gradually come into being; a specially focused improvement of safety production among important trades and professions and in key fields has been thoroughly carried out and the awareness of safety production among the public and the vast numbers of workers has been further enhanced; the safety production throughout the country has assumed an overall stability, the accidents and casualties in production tend to decline and the workers' labor safety and hygienic conditions have been improved evidently. For instance, during January and August of 2007, the number of injuries and deaths across the country reduced 21.9% year on year, which remained a continuous reduction of accidents since 2003.
However, with the rapid development of the Chinese economy, the drastic enlargement of the social production scale, the disorderly development of the private enterprises and the poor basic conditions all have increased the possible occurance of accidents in production and intensified the pressure from safety production and from prevention of occupational diseases. Currently, the labor safety and hygienic problems in some highly dangerous trades and professions, especially in medium-sized and small enterprises, are still very conspicuous. In particular, the tendency of more and more accidents taking place in such trades and professions as mines, dangerous chemicals, construction and road traffic has yet not been effectively held in check and injuries, deaths and voacational hazards are taking place now and then, thus impairing the safety of lives and the physical health of the workers, especially the rural (i.e. migrant) workers, to a certain extent.
In terms of current problems, they are taking place more frequently and the safety production quotas are relatively backward. For instance, in 2006, the death rate in China from accidents in production each 100 million Yuan GDP was 0.558 (person); the death rate from accidents per 100,000 employed personnel in industrial, mining and commercial enterprises was 3.33 (person); the death rate from traffic accidents per 10,000 vehicles was 6.2 (person); the death rate from production of each one million tons of coals in coal mines was 2.041 (person) and dropped to 1.485 (person) by July of 2007. The above-mentioned data are all obviously higher than those of developed countries, suggesting that China is still lagging behind in safety production as compared with the world level. Hence, the Chinese trade unions have arduous yet important tasks for safeguarding the safety and health rights and interests of the workers.
4. Positively Participating in Investigation and Treatment of Workers' Injuries and Deaths
Trade unions at various levels in China have conscientiously undertaken the responsibility for participating in investigation and treatment of workers' injuries and deaths and occupational hazards. Over ecent years, trade unions at various levels throughout the country have participated in investigation and treatment of work-related injuries and deaths among workers reaching tens of thousands each year. In 2006 alone, trade unions at various levels throughout the country participated in investigation and treatment of workers' injuries and deaths amounting to 97,000.
Amongst the injuries and deaths, an accident causing 30 deaths and above has been investigated and handled with the participation of personnel sent by All-China Federation of Trade Unions; and an accident causing 10—29 deaths has been investigated and handled with the participation of personnel sent by provincial trade union federation. Reports of accidents under investigation organized by the units at the provincial level should be submitted to All-China Federation of Trade Unions. When a trade union organization receives the report of an accident, the leader (s) in charge and the competent leading cadres of the labor protection departments should hurry to the scene of the accident the soonest possible, co-operate with the local government and the enterprise to deal with the emergency and provide disaster relief and organize personnel to do a good job of calming down and consoling the family members of the injured or dead workers.
When investigating and handling the accidents, trade unions have always adhered to the principle of “not letting go of the accident without clear results from the investigation, not letting off the accident maker (s) without taking disciplinary measure against him (them), not giving up the chance to draw lessons and not letting off the accident unit taking no preventive measures”; exercised supervision over the whole process of accident reporting and accident investigation and handling to ensure the objectivity, impartiality and effectiveness in investigation of the accident; earnestly safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of the injured or dead workers and their family members, positively participated in formulation of compensation plans and standards, given special concern to workers in financial difficulty and their family members and conscientiously maintained the economic rights and interests of the workers.
5. Widely Spreading Propaganda of Safety and Hygienic Knowledge, Conducting Training and Launching Emulation Campaigns among Workers
Trade unions at various levels in China have positively stimulated and co-operated with the government departments and enterprise administrative departments to start education and training in labor safety and hygienic knowledge among workers through various channels, to popularize safety and hygienic knowledge among the vast numbers of workers and to help workers to understand and master the state laws and regulations on labor safety and hygiene as well as the enterprise' safety production rules and regulations, to raise the sense of safety production responsibility, to consciously abide by ruels and regulations and observe discipline, to counter the command in violation of the rules and to stop all practices against the rules and regulations. Trade unions have laid much emphasis on education and training in safety and hygienic knowledge among workers, especially among rural workers of non-public ownership economic enterprises and helped them to improve the sense of safety and hygiene and technical skills; and helped the vast numbers of workers to step up their awareness of rights protection, to understand relevant rights and obligations for safety and hygiene to be enjoyed by them according to law and to enhance the workers' ability to participate in democratic management and supervision over safety production and to safeguard their own legitimate rights and interests.
Trade unions at various levels in China have strengthened propaganda through public opinions, made full use of their propaganda front and the public media to give publicity to the practices and effectiveness from participation of the vast numbers of workers in democratic management and supervision over safety production, to give publicity to the typical examples appearing in safety production and accident prevention conducted by the masses of workers and to give publicity to the advanced experiences of the trade unions in carrying out labor protection so as to increase the social influence of the labor protection work; the trade unions have reflected the opinions, suggestions and demands of the vast numbers of workers on safety and hygienic work of the enterprises through the press and mass media, disclosed the events impairing the safety and health rights and interests of the workers and declared the stand, attitude and propositions of the trade unions.
Since 1998, the Chinese trade unions and the departments concerned have jointly launched the thoroughgoing emulation campaigns of "Safety and Health Cup" among enterprises and institutions across the country. In 2006 alone, number of enterprises who took part throughout the country amonuted to 184,000, with 67 million workers involved. The emulation campaigns have given prominence to the "people-first" principle with “mastering safety production knowledge and striving to be law-abiding workers” being as the emulation theme and the education for popularizing safety production has been widely carried out in line with the actual conditions of the production in enterprises. In recent years, trade unions at various levels have enabled more than 50 million workers to participate in popularization and education of safety and hygienic knowledge around the emulation theme and through various forms such as contest, lecture and online answers to questions. The vast numbers of workers have got themselves in management and supervision over safety production through emulation campaigns to have realized their own safety and health rights and interests; enterprises involved in emulation campaigns have continually escalated their safety management level in accordance with the requirements of the campaigns; many places have held in check and cut down injuries and deaths and occupational hazards by virtue of the emulation campaigns and have promoted the steady growth of the local economy and society.