Paper Example on Withheld Wages in Construction

Introduction

Most construction workers who are caught up in the problem of unpaid wages in China are rural migrants. They face constant discrimination due to the household registration system in China. Notably, employers who withhold wages for construction workers apply their skills of coercion to continue feeding lies to workers who have misplaced faith in their bosses. According to Bengsten, more than half the workers working in China have been victims of unpaid wages once in their lifetime. This is because they cannot risk protesting when construction is going on because that would be risking their jobs. There are many unemployed people in China hence; those employed are easily replaceable. Therefore, when they are promised that they will be paid at the end of the project, they believe but in most cases, the promises never come to fruition.

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Withheld wages lead to poor living standards of construction workers. They are forced to live in poor housing conditions because they cannot afford descent houses. Some of them suffer depression. For instance, eight people promised to commit suicide if they were not paid for the work they had done (Bengsten). These workers become frustrated because they are not able to satisfy their basic needs and this affects their productivity at work.

Brick Kiln Slavery

The first incident of brick kiln slavery was reported in 2007. Bricke Kiln slavery affects people from all occupations such as elderly people, young people, and mentally ill adults. Brick kiln slavery is one of the extreme cases of labor issues in China. People working in brick kiln are forced to work there against their will, some kidnapped and separated from their families, which results in depression in families left behind and those working in the kilns.

People working in kilns are subjected to inhumane working conditions. This adds to the fact that they are captured also kidnapped to provide labor to the kilns. According to Bengsten, people have reported cases of being beaten when working at the kilns. Franceschini argues that brick kilns employ a docile workforce that is not capable of raising any demands. He narrates the story of a 15-year old boy who was rescued in 2007 from one of the kilns in China. He was only 13-years old when he was kidnapped from his hometown, Zhengzhou. When he was rescued, he had a number on his hand and his hair was unkempt. He said that people were addressed using numbers not their names. This led to loss of personal identity as people use their names for identity. In addition, workers were overworked in the brick kilns. They had a production quota of 1000 bricks and failure to reach this quota led to severe beating. The boy testified that escaping in the kilns was not an option. This is because anybody who was caught escaping was beaten to death and his or her body was dumped in the open to rot. This was done as a warning to other workers so that they were aware of the consequences that awaited them if they tried to escape. The boy had seen six people who faced this fate during the two years he had been held captive.

Conclusion

In conclusion, China is considerably the highest producer of bricks as well as the top consumer of construction materials as well. The high productivity is largely due to forced labor -a system that pushes people to stretch their production limits thus resulting in production of extra units. Although the positive impact of high productivity comes at the expense of forced labor, it contributes to the general development of the economy at large.

Work Cited

Bengsten, Peter. China's Forced Labor Problem. https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/chinas-forced-labor-problem/. 2018. Accessed November, 15, 2018.

Franceschini, `Ivan. Slaving Away: The 'Black Brick Kilns Scandal' Ten Years On. https://www.chinoiresie.info/slaving-away-the-black-brick-kilns-scandal-ten-years-on/. 2018. Accessed November 15, 2018