“You'll Be Fired if You Refuse” - Human Rights Watch

Summary
Over the past decade, China has rapidly increased its investment throughout Africa. But
while many commentaries have examined the ambivalent relationship between China and
Africa, few have systematically examined what Chinese investment means in human rights
terms, particularly for Africans employed by China’s state-owned companies. By
investigating the specific practices of particular Chinese employers, the conditions of a
given set of workers, and the enforcement of labor laws by a particular African government,
it is possible to begin to paint a picture of China’s broader role in Africa. To this end, this
report examines the labor practices of Chinese state-owned companies in Zambia, a
landlocked country in southern Africa, focusing on the country’s long-thriving copper
mining industry and its well-established organized labor.
Based on three research missions to Zambia, it draws on more than 170 interviews,
including with 95 mine workers from the country’s four Chinese copper operations, 48
mine workers from other multinational copper mining operations, management
representatives from Chinese-run mines, mining union officials, government
representatives, police, medical professionals, journalists, and foreign diplomats. The
report examines primarily how practices in the Chinese-run copper mines compare to
relevant domestic and international labor and human rights standards, as well as how they
compare to those of other copper mining companies in Zambia.
Human Rights Watch found that while Zambians working in the country’s Chinese-run
copper mines welcome the substantial investment and job creation, they suffer from
abusive employment conditions that fail to meet domestic and international standards
and fall short of practices among the copper mining industry elsewhere in Zambia. Miners
at several Chinese-run companies spoke of poor health and safety standards, including
poor ventilation that can lead to serious lung diseases, hours of work in excess of Zambian
law, the failure to replace workers’ personal protective equipment that is damaged while at
work, and the threat of being fired should workers refuse to work in unsafe places. Injuries
and negative health consequences are not uncommon, although many incidents are not
reported to the government, contrary to Zambian and international labor law. The troubling
situation stems largely from the attitude of Chinese-owned and run companies in Zambia,
which have tended to treat safety and health measures as trivial.
Efforts to address these and other issues of concern to workers—particularly pay, which is
higher than Zambia’s monthly minimum wage but much lower than that paid by other
1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011