FREED: A miner is rescued from a flooded coalmine in Weiyuan County, Sichuan Province on November 22. All 29 miners who had been trapped underground, including two managers, survived the accident (JIANG HONGJING)

To Lead by Example

Recently, managers of two coalmines in Guizhou Province were each fined 160,000 yuan ($24,000) for failing to implement a mine safety regulation from the Central Government. This stipulated at least one mine executive must themselves descend into the shafts to work alongside miners. The policy issued by the State Administration of Work Safety became effective in October.

The new regulation was issued after a number of fatal mine accidents because of poor implementation of work safety rules. The compulsory presence of mine leaders in the shafts is expected to provide motivation to implement safety regulations meticulously. Only by working in the mines can managers really walk in the miners' shoes and realize how important safety measures are. But, over the past month, mine leaders' fraudulent practices, such as appointing "assistants" to descend into mines or falsifying work logs, have been exposed.

The history of workplace accidents tells us that even good, well-intentioned regulations are useless unless they are implemented properly.

This means all mine executives who cheat on implementing the new regulation should be punished. Past experience shows there is often a surge of workplace accidents at the year's end because of slack monitoring. Every mining company should draw a lesson from the punishment of the mine leaders in Guizhou.

Procuratorial Daily

Salaries in Monopolies

Recently, it was reported a new regulation on salaries being formulated by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will require enterprises in monopoly industries to publish employees' salaries and to apply for ratification for pay rises and welfare benefit increases.

Public complaints about big paychecks for people working in monopoly industries have been around for a long time. It is natural these salaries have become a major focus of upcoming income distribution reform.

A fundamental change is needed to the practices of enterprises in monopoly industries of setting salaries based on profits. Since the high profits arise from a monopoly status, they do not necessarily mean high returns on investment.

Unless a performance-based pay system is established, salaries of enterprises in monopoly industries will not be able to win the public's trust even if they have been subject to the most rigorous publication and approval procedures.

West China Metropolis Daily

Taxi Association at Fault

Recently, the taxi drivers' association in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, imposed life bans on 46 drivers whose five-hour walkout earlier this year was accused of "making residents' daily lives inconvenient and damaging the image of the industry."

These drivers walked out to demand lower cab rents, higher gas price subsidies and a crackdown on illegal cabs. In response to their demands, the local government reduced the deposit on a cab from 90,000 yuan ($13,600) to 50,000 yuan ($7,600) to ease drivers' burdens.

But the taxi drivers' association still levied harsh penalties on these drivers.

The taxi drivers' association is more than a self-disciplinary organization. Instead, it has the responsibility of listening to drivers' complaints and speaking for drivers in labor disputes and making suggestions on improving drivers' working conditions to the government.

No matter whether these drivers' requests are reasonable or not, they have the right to express their opinions. Would taxi drivers risk their jobs to make transportation authorities' pay attention, if their reasonable requests were handled properly? Taxi drivers' associations have a role to play in this matter.

People's Daily

Short-lived Rumors

In mid-November, at least 10 "news" items were proved to be "rumors" in a week. A noteworthy phenomenon is the rumors were dismissed by concerned parties via the Internet shortly after they appeared. Although the Internet hasn't reduced the number of rumors, it has greatly shortened the rumors' shelf lives.

After the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on November 10 it was holding a news conference on the discovery of an "exceptional object" on November 15, many people made guesses about what this object was. Some said it was an alien and others said it was a UFO.

NASA denied all the rumors on its official website hours after posting the announcement, saying that the "exceptional object" was a black hole in close proximity to the Earth.

In China, the four state-owned commercial banks denied a rumor they would suspend property loans on November 16. Denial of this rumor quickly spread on the Internet.

Why does the Internet help to dispel rumors? First, the Internet reduces the costs of clarification. This is why so many organizations and government agencies are using Internet announcements and official micro-blogs to dispel rumors in case of major events. Second, the Internet makes it easier for netizens to find the truth themselves.

In this Internet era, everyone is able to freely spread messages at the time events occur, which helps people ascertain the truth.

Xinhua Daily Telegraph