Gov't, company management act as workers suffer in summer heat
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Steel workers in Shijiazhuang, capital of the northern Hebei Province, stuck to their work in their extremely hot and humid workshop having rubbed on cooling ointment and sipping cold drinks.
"Since the boiling hot molten steel is transported back and forth in the workshop, many workers have to work in temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius," said Wang Zhiguo, a manager of a steelworks owned by the Hebei Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd.
To relieve workers' suffering, the management staff sent mung bean soup, a refreshing summer snack, and cooling ointment to them, Wang said.
Furthermore, freezers in the factory's air-conditioned retiring room were filled with bottled water, ice cubes and ice cream.
"We know that the company has planned to introduce more fully automatic production facilities to free more workers from the muggy work environment," said a steelworker, Li Shengfu.
Due to the scorching weather, construction workers in Shijiazhuang and other heat-plagued regions, such as Tianjin Municipality and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have implemented adjusted work times.
As stipulated by the municipal construction bureau, construction workers in Shijiazhuang have stopped working from noon to 2 p.m. to prevent heat fatigue.
But a Xinhua reporter found the temperature at a residential building construction site reached 44 degrees Celsius at 3:30. Some workers said they still could not bear the heat even after 2 p.m.
Despite the extreme heat, Wang Hongze, a 48-year-old construction worker in Nanning, Guangxi's capital, said he wouldn't ask for a day's leave. "I can't afford to lose 120 yuan (17.7 U.S. dollars) a day. I'm working hard to pay my son's college fees."
Beijing, with temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius, has decided to raise the allowance of those working in the heat.
A spokesman with the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau said Tuesday it would start raising the minimum allowance for those working outdoors from 60 to 120 yuan per month.
The Chinese capital Monday recorded 40.6 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature in the first 10 days of July in 50 years.
