Elderly migrants have to continue working due to pension system challenges

By Thepaper.cn – Global Times Source:Global Times Published: 2015-3-24 20:18:01

An elderly migrant worker cuts steel bars on a building in Jinhu, Jiangsu Province on March 19. Photo: IC



Xie Guowan, a migrant worker hailing from Tuanfeng village, Kaixian county, Chongqing, had his "happiest ever" year in 2013 when his labor contractor started providing him with hearty meals.

"[I was allocated] 250 grams of meat each day. Sometimes I had to throw away the leftovers," said Xie.

After the 2015 Spring Festival, the 61-year-old Xie once again started working in the construction industry, hoping that his employer would provide him with the filling meals he needs to stay strong at his age.

The picky eater explained that "on construction sites, more strength means more money."

Li Jiahai, a labor contractor, said more than 90 percent of his employees are migrants over the age of 50, who have to eat a lot of meat to manage all the heavy labor they must perform. "Their hearts may palpitate if there's no meat for just one day," Li said.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday that workers over 50 years of age accounted for 15.2 percent of all migrant workers in 2013, up by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year. According to the 2013 National Migrant Worker Monitoring Survey, released by the NBS in May last year, there were more than 40 million senior migrant workers in 2013.

A migrant worker is defined as a person who works in a non-agricultural sector in an urban area, but their permanent residence, known as "hukou," is registered in a rural area, according to the State Council's 2006 definition.

Hard labor

Li, 52, left Tuanfeng village in 1995 to contract construction projects in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province. He remembers that most of his employees were under 30 before 2000. However, a big chunk of his team are older than 50 now. Since 2013, he has failed to attract any workers under the age of 30.

The 2013 NBS survey found that only around 15 percent of migrant workers born after 1980 work in construction, while more than 30 percent of older migrant workers earn a living in construction. More than 70,000 residents of Kaixian above the age of 50 work in other areas, making up 15 percent of the 535,000 Kaixian residents who have traveled outside the area looking for work.

Liu Daming of Chongqing, 53, returned to the "battlefield" after he got an ocular prosthesis in his left eye, which was injured by a pebble on a construction site in 2013.

Liu said the key to hsi physical fitness is the amount of meat he eats. "I feel weak without meat," Liu noted.

Tan Xiuping, 40, who went to Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from Chongqing to contract construction projects, said he asks the cooks he employs to prepare the laborers two meals with meat every day, as his employees tie rebar, which is physically demanding work.

Li said they provide pork, fish, chicken drumsticks and duck legs.

"My employees altogether eat one whole pig every two days. Each worker is guaranteed 200 grams of meat every day," Li added.

As more provinces began to prohibit migrant workers above 60 years old from working on the construction "front line," some seniors wage "guerrilla warfare" on construction sites, said Yuan Wanxiang, head of the labor office in Kaixian.

Among the senior migrant workers recently interviewed by news portal thepaper.cn, some resorted to using fake ID cards, or dyeing their gray hair black. Some others convinced contractors with their hard work. The contractors therefore willingly helped them avoid the authorities' checks.

Supporting families

Why are older workers so keen on working such toilsome jobs? A total of 103 senior migrant workers interviewed by thepaper.cn explained that they want to make as much money as they can when they are healthy, as they have no pensions, or they are the backbone of their families.

The NBS surveys showed that workers in labor-extensive industries such as transport, mining and construction earn more money than those in other sectors like catering, hospitality or appliance repair. The average monthly income of people working in the construction industry increased from 1,625 yuan ($262) in 2009 to 2,965 yuan in 2013.

After Spring Festival this February, Xiang Keping, 65, of Tuanfeng village, plodded back to a construction site in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province in a bid to pay for his son's university tuition fees.

Xiang's wife Li Keqiu said that he would rather have a lower-paying job in his local area but that he has to grit his teeth for his son due to a lack of savings. He may keep working in Guangdong until 2016, when his son graduates.

Chen Sijiu, another Tuanfeng resident in his late 50s, suffers from such severe arthritis that he has to walk sideways when going down stairs. But he was forced to return to construction after spending his 20,000 yuan of savings on his late father and his son who became sick with tuberculosis.

Some others chose to work away from home as they lack a pension. According to the 2013 survey, most farmers working in construction have not signed a formal contract with their employers - meaning that they have not paid into any nationwide social security programs themselves, and that their bosses do not have to contribute to a pension fund on their behalf.

Unsecured future

Tuanfeng village head Luo Jianguo said that among the 300 residents of the village who are above 50 years old, only one villager's employer pays basic urban-worker endowment insurance, while the rest, who are covered by the new rural social pension insurance program, only receive 80 yuan per month. The interviewed workers expressed their grave concerns over the quality of life they can expect after they are too old to work.

Chen Lichun, 63, said he had worked on construction sites for years in Guangdong without paying social security. After returning to his hometown, he could not retire and instead had to work on nearby construction sites, mixing concrete or renovating ponds, while his wife raised chickens and ducks and planted vegetables.

Li Xianlin, 60, who returned home four years ago, is now supported by his two children because he has no source of income.

According to the labor office in Kaixian county, none of its residents who worked on construction projects has been bought basic urban-worker endowment insurance by their employers.

Under currently-running insurance programs, the pension funds that migrant workers pay into in their workplaces are difficult to transfer to their hometown. This means that money they pay into funds in different provinces may prove inaccessible to them when they return home, and therefore many choose not to pay into funds while working away from home.

The funds that migrant workers pay into should be integrated across provinces to make it easier for migrant workers to save money for retirement, the China Association for Promoting Democracy, a collection of non-Communist parties in the Chinese mainland proposed during the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 2014.


Newspaper headline: Worn-out workers


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