October 16, 2008
Job discrimination against people with hepatitis B or other diseases has given birth to a market for “exam substitutes” — stand-ins who take medical exams in place of their clients to ensure that they get a clean bill of health. A report in today’s The Beijing News says Beijing stand-ins are making a good living – more than 100,000 yuan per year – by helping people fake their medical examination results.
A man named Huang Weimu (黄伟木) worked undercover in a Guangzhou sweatshop for five months to gather evidence of the factory’s ongoing violations of the Labor and Contract Law. Huang later reported the factory to the local Labor Arbitration Committee and received 12,500 yuan in compensation. Like most other factories in Guangdong, the factory did not hire employees under contract, and paid workers less than the legal minimum wage.
The 24 year-old Huang, who has been a migrant worker for over six years, told the newspaper that he had been enraged by People’s Representative Zhang Yin’s (张茵) proposal to postpone the Labor and Contract Law at this year’s People’s Congress, and decided to do something to change the situation of migrant workers. Huang said he hoped he could inspire more migrant workers to stand up for their own rights.
A new policy requires Internet cafes in Beijing to store customers’ personal information including a photograph and scan of each customer’s ID card.
Microsoft China announced that starting October 20, all Windows operating systems (including Windows XP and Vista) found to have been pirated will have their desktop backgrounds turned black, replacing whatever desktop may have been set by the user. Desktops will be reset to black every 60 minutes, foiling users who would otherwise simply reset their wallpaper.