The OHSA also works closely with the International Window Cleaning Association, the industry’s union, for statistics, guidance, and access to training resources, all with the central focus of protecting the health and safety of workers. Department of Labor charged with enforcing regulations and assisting both workers and employers. But Liu admits that the standards as they were adopted lacked teeth compared with those of other countries such as the United States, which has clear means of enforcement already in place in the form of its Occupational Health and Safety Administration, a branch of the U.S. Seven years ago, China’s central government released Liu’s safety standards for window washers, requiring, among other things, compulsory training for all would-be cleaners. “It worked fine for the first two days.” No one overseeing the site ever checked whether he was using one rope or two, he said. “The rope was pretty old but looked like it was in good shape,” Li told Sixth Tone. The result of all this is that Li is still fighting to receive disability benefits from his former employer a year after his fall. In addition, the barely literate workers are rarely keen to observe cumbersome regulations. As the window-washing industry has grown, companies have operated on increasingly slim profit margins, meaning there’s little left in the coffers for staff development or insurance against accidents. Migrant workers flock to cities to fulfill contracts during warm weather and then disappear as winter approaches, making training programs an onerous annual chore for businesses. But according to Huang Shengchu, director of the Center for Safety Research under the State Administration of Work Safety, more than 1,000 lives are lost every year to accidents in the construction sector, and 60 percent of these deaths come as a result of falls, including those from collapsed scaffolding.Īlthough Chinese law requires that all window cleaners be trained and licensed, in reality few are, and credential checks are easily circumvented. Nobody knows for sure the exact number of casualties suffered each year, as monitoring and accountability systems are poor. It’s a fast-growing industry: More than 3,000 companies now compete for contracts in Shanghai alone, up from next to none just two decades ago. The government put Liu, a prominent researcher on work safety, in charge of compiling the first set of national safety standards for window washers. His story highlights the complex problem of worker safety in this small yet high-risk industry.Īn estimated 400,000 people work for 20,000 window-cleaning companies in China, said 65-year-old Liu Yu of the Occupational Safety and Health Association. More than a year later, Li, now 48, is still unable to work, and he has not received compensation from the contractor beyond reimbursement for his initial medical costs. When the one rope he was using snapped, Li fell four stories onto a patch of dirt. However, he decided not to use the second rope, as it restricted the amount of surface area he could cover in one session. Li Xinfu was supposed to secure the wooden scaffold with two ropes - one to raise and lower him down the facade of the building so he could clean its windows, and the other as a safety backup.
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