Pearl Briefing | Labour arbitration law could have prevented worker's suicide
If sacked shoe factory striker Zhou Jianrong's suicide speeds passage of labour arbitration law, it will have saved jobs of others fighting for rights
On Thursday, more than 100 representatives of labour groups from around the nation, workers and the family of Zhou Jianrong gathered in Guangzhou to mourn her death.
Seven days earlier, the 49-year-old worker had leapt to her death from the fourth floor of the GCL Footwear Factory complex in Shenzhen. Less than 24 hours earlier, she had been fired from a job she held for 12 years, following a long-running dispute with management, according to China Labour Bulletin, a rights group.
Zhou leaves behind two daughters and a husband, and questions waiting to be answered. Most prominent of these is whether her death will cloud the controversial passage of the proposed Regulations on Enterprise Collective Consultations and Collective Contracts, scheduled to be vetted by the Guangdong People's Congress next week.
"Her death underscores the urgent need to pass these regulations to force employers to negotiate with workers and forbid them from firing workers during those negotiations," said Zeng Feiyang, director of the Guangdong Panyu Migrant Workers Centre.
"If the law had been passed earlier, this tragic death could have been avoided," Zeng said. "Workers would at least know they wouldn't be fired and wouldn't need to defend their rights at the cost of their lives."
Her death underscores the urgent need to pass these regulations
Zhou was one of 109 workers fired in three batches by the factory following a series of strikes they staged in May. She was sacked on July 16, the day before her death.