An inspection of Shanghai labor market last month suggests many companies in the city still aren't paying into Shanghai's social insurance fund for many of their migrant workers.

An inspection of more than 2,000 companies in the city last month, found 463 businesses had either delayed paying wages to their employees or not paid into the social insurance fund for their staff.

The insurance fund includes a pension system and worker's compensation. If a company doesn't pay, its employees won't receive a pension when they retire or compensation if they are injured on the job.

About half of the violators, many of which are located in the city's suburbs, failed to pay into the social insurance fund for their migrant workers.

Labor inspectors said nearly 80 percent of the 41 companies they checked in suburban Minhang District last month had not paid into the insurance fund, depriving more than 1,000 migrant workers.

Inspectors said Shanghai Zifengge Restaurant in Minhang is a typical case. The restaurant has 134 migrant employees, but has only paid all of the due insurance fees for 31 of them

Lu Tingfei, a spokesman for the labor inspection team, said that the situation has become as bad as it is because most migrant workers don't know their legal rights and don't understand exactly what benefits their employers should be paying for them.

"Migrant workers tend to pay close attention to their direct rewards, such as salaries and overtime payments, but it is not until our checks that they would realize their rights to insurance benefits were also invaded," Lu said.

(Shanghai Daily June 3, 2005)