Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BEIJING11761
2006-06-11 07:52:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

World Bank Migrant Skills and Employment

Tags:  ELAB EFIN ETRD PHUM PGOV CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4639
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHBJ #1761/01 1620752
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 110752Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8330
INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 6509
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0774
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 4902
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 6324
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 7610
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 5700
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1156
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 011761 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM, DRL/IL
DEPARTMENT PASS USTR FOR KARESH, ROSENBERG
DEPARTMENT PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, WINTER, ALTBACH,
CELICO
LABOR FOR ILAB HELM, LI ZHAO, SCHOEPFLE
TREASURY FOR OASIA/ISA-DOHNER AND KOEPKE
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN
LABOR COLLECTIVE

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EFIN ETRD PHUM PGOV CH
SUBJECT: World Bank Migrant Skills and Employment
Project Seeks USDOL Participation

Ref: Beijing 6522

Sensitive But Unclassified; Handle Accordingly

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 011761

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM, DRL/IL
DEPARTMENT PASS USTR FOR KARESH, ROSENBERG
DEPARTMENT PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, WINTER, ALTBACH,
CELICO
LABOR FOR ILAB HELM, LI ZHAO, SCHOEPFLE
TREASURY FOR OASIA/ISA-DOHNER AND KOEPKE
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN
LABOR COLLECTIVE

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EFIN ETRD PHUM PGOV CH
SUBJECT: World Bank Migrant Skills and Employment
Project Seeks USDOL Participation

Ref: Beijing 6522

Sensitive But Unclassified; Handle Accordingly


1. (SBU) Summary and Action Request: Yu Xiaoqing,
Lead Social Protection Specialist and Team Leader
for a World Bank Migrant Skills and Employment
Project requested by the Chinese Government, asks
whether USDOL would be able to participate in the
World Bank team designing the project, perhaps
through the mechanism of one of the bilateral
Letters of Understanding. Ms. Yu told Laboff that
the Ministry of Labor and Social Security is quite
open about the scope of the worker rights component
of the project, suggesting that issues such as
improving labor inspection, increasing the use of
labor contracts, enforcing the minimum wage, and
developing social insurance programs for migrants
could be addressed. The program will ot/not focus
on collective bargaining or freedom of association,
Ms. Yu emphasized. Full text of the World Bank
paper on the project is included at paragraph 9.
Post requests DOL reply as to whether participation,
through whatever mechanism, will be feasible. End
Summary and Action Request.


2. (U) Yu Xiaoqing, Lead Social Protection
Specialist, told Laboff and Labor Intern June 5 that
the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS)
has asked the World Bank to conduct a Migrant Skills
and Employment Project for which she will be team
leader. Earlier this year, the State Council
established the Secretariat for Migrant Issues
within the Ministry of Labor signaling that MOLSS
has the major cross-ministerial coordination role on
this issue.

Broad Scope for Worker Rights Component
--------------


3. (U) The World Bank has suggested that the
project focus on four areas: human resource
development, employment services, worker rights

protection, and policy and institutional capacity
building. MOLSS has been quite open about the
possibilities for the worker rights component of the
project, Ms. Yu said. The Central Government is
already paying a great deal of attention to such
problems as ensuring that migrant workers are paid
on time and that injured workers receive
compensation. As a result, MOLSS mentioned a number
of problems the project could be used to address:

-- Improve Labor Inspection: MOLSS is interested
in improving labor inspection to enforce basic
rules, she said. (Note: See Ref, which reported
that as recently as April 2006, the Beijing ILO
Director indicated that inspection was not a topic
on which the Chinese would allow engagement. End
Note.)

-- Increase Use of Labor Contracts: Although
employers are required to sign a labor contract with
migrant workers they employ, the majority of such
workers do not have a labor contract. MOLSS is very
interested in improving this situation.

-- Enforce the Minimum Wage: MOLSS believes that
the minimum wage is being implemented for urban
workers, but that it is largely ignored for migrant
workers. Overall, minimum wages are thought to be

BEIJING 00011761 002 OF 004


well below where they should be, resulting in the
exploitation of workers.

-- Develop Social Insurance for Migrants: MOLSS is
interested in further developing the system of
social insurance for migrants. Work injury
insurance has been the easiest element to put in
place because it requires that employers, not
employees, pay into the system. The second element
of the new system is the pension system. Earlier
this year, the State Council issued a framework
document for development of a rural social security
system, but many problems must be resolved. As one
example, the urban requirement that workers
participate in the system for 15 years before the
pension vests is not suitable for migrants who move
around.

Collective Rights Will Not Be Project Focus
--------------


4. (U) Recognizing that her own expertise is in
economics, not in labor, Ms. Yu has been consulting
with the International Labor Organization's Beijing
Office, which has emphasized the need to improve
enforcement of China's abundance of existing labor
laws and regulations. Ms. Yu said that she thinks
the environment is right for making such
improvements; the government is very receptive, in
her opinion. However, she stressed, the focus of
the project will be on the implementation of
individual rights, not on collective bargaining or
on freedom of association.

World Bank to Commission Background Papers
--------------


5. (U) The World Bank will commission an early
analysis by expert panels of each of the problem
areas set out by MOLSS. Following those
assessments, and the background papers that result
from them, the World Bank will discuss with the
government the scope of each area. Although the
World Bank usually works through the Ministry of
Finance with the finance and planning divisions of
ministries, this time it will work directly with the
MOLSS International Division, in the same manner as
does the U.S. Department of Labor's Labor Rule of
Law Project.

World Bank Seeks U.S. DOL Participation
--------------


6. (U) Ms. Yu asked Laboff to try to determine
whether the U.S. Department of Labor would be able
to participate in the project. She asked
specifically whether USDOL through the bilateral
LOUs would be able to participate as part of the
World Bank team responsible for designing and
advising on the execution of the project. Ms. Yu is
also seeking cofinancing or financing for elements
of technical assistance and monitoring for the
project, but recognizes the limitations on USG
projects in China.

Work Safety Technical Assistance Project
--------------


7. (U) The World Bank currently has a technical
assistance project on work safety, totaling USD300-
400,000, underway with MOLSS. The World Bank will

BEIJING 00011761 003 OF 004


work with MOLSS on the insurance aspects while the
ILO will work on the safety aspects of the project.


8. (SBU) Comment: The request for U.S. Department
of Labor participation is recognition of DOL's past
contributions to China's labor law reforms through
the Labor Rule of Law Project and bilateral Letters
of Understanding. Embassy requests earliest
possible reply to the inquiry.


9. (U) The full text of the project description
document provided by Ms. Yu follows:

(Begin text of World Bank document)

World Bank Migrant Skills and Employment Project
Background and Preliminary Ideas

At the request of the Chinese government, a "Migrant
Skills and Employment Project" has been included in
the World Bank?s lending program. In 2005, the Bank
initiated some preliminary assessment of the main
issues and potential areas of focus. With the
support of the Bank?s leading counterparts ? the
Ministry of Finance and the National Development and
Reform Commission ? the Bank team held the first
round of consultation with key government agencies
that are directly involved in migrant related policy
and programs . The key agencies include the Ministry
of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of
Labor and Social Security, Ministry of Construction,
and the State Council Leading Group on Poverty
Reduction
The Bank also visited selected provinces to obtain
first-hand experience and observations of situation
on the ground.

Based on the mission and analytical work that the
Bank has been engaged in regarding migration, the
Bank provided the government with some preliminary
thoughts on the principles and objectives of the
proposed operation.

Project objective. The project will support the
transition of rural migrants to urban areas to
increase their access to better employment
opportunities, and to improve their incomes and
working conditions by enhancing educational
attainment, improving access to quality training and
employment services, and strengthening worker
protection.

Principles. The Bank team thinks that the
development of the project would need to follow some
key principles, including: (a) to promote an
integrated rural and urban labor market; (b) to
foster market development while correcting market
failures; (c) to improve the effective use of public
resources; (d) to improve poverty focus of
government interventions and strengthen incentives
for private providers to serve this clientele; (e)
to promote evidence-based policy development.

Potential focus. The Bank team considers that it
would be desirable that the project focuses on
tackling issues in a few critical areas affecting
migration outcomes and the well being of the people
concerned. This can include human resource
development (such as intervention that would help to
enhance education attainment of young adults in
rural China and to provide access to market-led good

BEIJING 00011761 004 OF 004


quality training),employment services (such as
strengthening the government programs and
encouraging private provision of a whole range of
employment services),workers right protection (to
assist the government in the implementation of
workers? protection policy and to empower migrant
workers with knowledge about their rights, and
policy and institutional capacity building (which
can support government reform of key social and
economic policies that influence migration decisions
and outcomes, and to develop general monitoring and
evaluation capacity).

End text of World Bank document.

Randt