The coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause millions more people in China to lose their jobs, leaving many of them stranded without a safety net, unable to access state unemployment benefits, economists say.
FILE PHOTO: People wearing face masks walk across a street at Beijing's Financial Street during evening rush hour, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease , China April 8, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
But millions of workers have no contracts or have not been paying into the unemployment insurance scheme, meaning they will have to rely on their employers giving them compensation if they get laid off. Many will be forced to dip into savings or seek help from their extended family if they lose their jobs.
Workers registered in the system can draw monthly payments for up to two years if they have contributed to the scheme for a decade. The length of the payment decreases with shorter contribution periods. Migrant labourers might have already lost up to $100 billion in wages during the lost working weeks of lockdown earlier this year, one study by researchers at Stanford University estimates.
Data from China Labour Bulletin, which monitors labour disputes in the world’s second largest economy, shows that of 50 collective worker protests in March, half were in the service and transport sectors. Construction workers also protested over compensation, including some who helped build emergency hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic in China
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