POOR PROTECTION: A female worker at a coalmine in Anhui Province wears only a gauze mask to guard against health-threatening coal dust (CFP)

The Beijing Yilian Legal Aid and Study Center of Labor, an NGO that provides legal aid services for employees suffering from labor disputes for free, conducted a survey on occupational disease patients and the results came out in February. The survey found that 37.8 percent of the respondents didn't get any form of compensation and there was a serious problem caused by delays in sending out documentation.

To get compensation from their employers, the patients need to have a work-related injury identification letter, and the center's survey found that 57.8 percent of the respondents waited more than 30 days for such a letter.

"If everything goes smoothly, it will take nine months to go through the procedures. Many small factories will change their businesses in far less time than that, especially when they hear whispers of their workers getting sick," Zou said.

"Actually, many occupational diseases might have long incubation periods. When some of the sickened employees finally realize they have suffered occupational diseases, they have already lost track of their employers," he said.

In 2010, Zou's website tried to help a patient with benzene poisoning in Bishan, a small county in southwestern Chongqing Municipality, win compensation for his medical treatment. The procedures took a year. When the patient finally had all the papers he needed, his boss vanished.

"Shortening identification procedures is vital to helping these patients get compensation in time," Zou said.

Encouragingly, Zou said, the government had taken measures to shorten the procedure time in 2010, such as establishing diagnostic criteria for occupational diseases related to infection and radiation.

In addition to the long wait for papers, the patients are also having difficulty preparing the materials needed to apply for the occupational illness diagnosis. They are required to have laborer's employment history, occupational disease inductive work records, occupational health examination results and occupational disease medical treatment among other individual health records.

"The most difficult one is to get the occupational disease inductive records from their employers. Once a person is diagnosed as suffering occupational diseases, the employer may have to take compensation responsibility. Therefore some employers refuse to provide such medical records or even deny the labor relation with the patients," said Ye Mingxin, director of the center.

The survey by the Beijing Yilian Legal Aid and Study Center of Labor showed 48 percent of the respondents have been turned down by the occupational disease control centers on the grounds that the applicants don't possess enough and necessary materials.

Progress

Last November, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council published the draft regulation concerning occupational disease diagnosis and asked the public to give feedback.

According to a statement issued along with the regulation, in determining whether a patient suffers from an occupational disease, information about workplace hazards is needed. The new regulation says a diagnosis can be performed, even if employers do not provide information or provide falsified information.

It stipulates, if employers do not provide information, or patients question the authenticity of such information, patients can apply for arbitration of labor disputes and arbitration authorities should handle the case within 30 days.

And the regulation says employers will be held liable if they fail to provide relevant information within the time period designated by the arbitration authorities.

Grave Situation

The average age of occupational disease patients in China is 37 years old and 80.1 percent of them are male. Migrant workers account for the majority of victims, at 84.3 percent.

The majority of the patients work in mining, manufacturing and electronics, and 29.6 percent of the patients' employers are state-owned or foreign-funded enterprises.

About 71.8 percent of surveyed occupational disease patients say their employers do not offer any protection in their workplaces.

Pneumoconiosis is the No.1 occupational disease in China, making up 70.2 percent of all the reported cases.

When seeking help for settling disputes involving occupational diseases, 50 percent of the patients turn to labor authorities, 26.2 percent to health authorities and 12.2 percent to work safety regulators.

(Source: Survey by Beijing Yilian Legal Aid and Study Center of Labor)