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People's Daily questions compensation policy

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-10 19:31

BEIJING -- Despite China's social and economic progress over the past three decades, allowances for workers performing difficult or dangerous tasks have remained largely unchanged.

The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China, said in a bylined opinion piece Tuesday that allowances for Chinese people working in difficult or hazardous environments are too low, and the state rules on these allowances need revised.

Under current regulations, doctors using X-ray machines can receive a monthly allowance of 50 yuan (US$7.7) as compensation for their exposure to workplace radiation.

The paper said the rules are out-dated because they have stood unrevised for 20 years and a 50-yuan monthly allowance is no longer adequate compensation for daily exposure to radiation.

The only state regulation on allowances for working outdoors under high temperatures was issued in 1960 and has stayed unchanged ever since, according to the newspaper.

This regulation sets the daily allowance for working outdoors in high temperatures at two yuan, which is barely enough to buy a bottle of water, it said.

The newspaper said obsolete regulations mostly undermine the interests of ordinary outdoor workers, including construction workers, street cleaners and bus drivers.

It warned that these "far out-of-date" regulations could impede development and called for timely clearing and revision.