Scenes from Li Weizhi’s previous work
Text丨Wei Chunliang
The topic I’m writing about today is a bit heavy, not very likable, and might even be restricted in reach, but I really can’t help but write about it.
Because, seeing this news, I felt angry, yes, angry.
Li Weizhi, a pneumoconiosis patient from Luquan, Yunnan, is 36 years old. Before July 2023, he worked in decoration in Kunming, responsible for installing quartz stone countertops at customers’ homes. He buried himself in dust for three years, only to receive a diagnosis of Stage III Pneumoconiosis.
Before falling ill, Li Weizhi could carry a 140-jin quartz stone countertop upstairs by himself; now, he needs to use oxygen at least three times a day and can’t even lift his 40-jin son.
To obtain the necessary materials for occupational disease diagnosis, he did something that anyone who still believes in the law would do—
He reported the building materials company that had been assigning him jobs for a long time to the Health and Health Bureau of Wuhua District, Kunming, accusing them of not providing protective training, not issuing protective masks, violating the occupational disease prevention and control law, and demanding that the Wuhua District Health and Health Bureau actively fulfill its duties and urge the company to provide occupational disease diagnosis materials.
The good news is that the company was fined 210,000 yuan.
But the bad news is that on March 3rd this year, Li Weizhi also received a fine of 50,000 yuan.
The reason given by the Wuhua District Health and Health Bureau is even more absurd—
Li Weizhi violated Article 31 of the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law by accepting work with occupational disease hazards under conditions lacking occupational disease protection (installation of stone countertops).
……
The informant, the victim, and the penalized party all turned out to be the same person. He couldn’t understand:
“Did I report myself?“
It’s hard to believe that the Health and Health Bureau would do something so outrageous.
Article 31 of China’s Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law stipulates:
No unit or individual shall transfer work that causes occupational disease hazards to a unit or individual that lacks occupational disease protection. Units and individuals that lack occupational disease protection shall not accept work that causes occupational disease hazards.
Although the law prohibits individuals from accepting work with occupational disease hazards, as Li Weizhi’s lawyer, Ma Kan, said, from the perspective of judicial practice and legislative intent, the “individual” in this clause primarily refers to individuals acting as operators, such as foremen, job coordinators, construction team leaders, or individual contractors who objectively organize labor and benefit from it, rather than ordinary laborers like Li Weizhi who only sell their labor.
Furthermore, what is the legislative intent of China’s Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law?
The first article of the entire Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law clearly states: “To prevent, control, and eliminate occupational disease hazards, prevent and control occupational diseases, and protect the health and related rights and interests of workers.”
It is clear that the object of regulation by the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law has always been profit-driven enterprises that disregard human life, not the bottom-tier workers struggling to make a living. It exists to protect the life and health of frontline laborers.
However, the local Health and Health Bureau completely disregarded the legislative intent, deliberately isolating the latter half of the clause and precisely picking it out to severely punish the powerless victim. You, Li Weizhi, are an individual lacking protection, and you accepted this work, so you violated the law and were fined 50,000 yuan.
As someone said, following this logic, when a coal mine collapses, they first ask the miner, why did you go down the mine knowing it was dangerous?
When a delivery driver has a traffic accident, why did you still deliver food knowing the road was slippery in the rain?
It’s absurd!
Li Weizhi owed 200,000 yuan in debt to treat his mother’s ovarian cancer. Faced with the assigned work, what leverage did he have to say “no”? What ability did he have to judge the hazard level of this dusty work?
He didn’t even have a labor contract or social security. Without a labor contract and social security, he couldn’t even establish a labor relationship, let alone claim work-related injury compensation.
When a person accepts that fatal job because of poverty, lack of bargaining power, and the company’s deliberate refusal to sign a contract, the fault lies not with him, but with the violating enterprise.
Li Weizhi’s so-called “accepting work with occupational disease hazards under conditions lacking occupational disease protection” was not a violation, but rather he was a victim of the enterprise’s illegal behavior.
The law enforcement agency ignored the cause and effect, reversed the responsibility, and used this reason to impose a 50,000 yuan fine on a victim in dire straits, essentially making the injured party pay for the perpetrator’s illegal actions.
Such a reversed and topsy-turvy punishment was only revoked on September 18th, after reports and inquiries from many media outlets and self-media.
Now, Li Weizhi’s fine has been revoked, but his difficulties in seeking rights protection remain unresolved.
Li Weizhi has no recognized labor relationship, and this Stage III pneumoconiosis patient still cannot get an occupational disease diagnosis, nor can he be recognized as a patient with an occupational disease in the legal sense, thus he cannot receive any work-related injury compensation.
And this is the realistic dilemma that many occupational disease patients still face.
In 2009, Zhang Haichao underwent a “chest-opening” lung examination, forcing society to see the plight of pneumoconiosis workers through a tragic and self-harming act.
There was a huge public outcry that year, and everyone thought that the institutional loopholes in occupational disease rights protection would be completely fixed. Yet, after more than a decade, while the written laws have been continuously improved, the difficulties faced by grassroots workers in reality seem not to have been effectively resolved.
Enterprises still hold all employment materials, control all evidence, and possess all the power of discourse;
Workers still lack contracts, records, channels, and the ability to provide evidence;
The burden of proof has been reversed in the law, but the first hurdle of labor relationship disqualifies countless victims.
Li Weizhi has not given up and is still seeking possible avenues for relief. Recently, he has applied to the Yunnan Provincial Government for administrative reconsideration, requesting the Yunnan Provincial Health and Health Commission to actively fulfill its duties in accordance with the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law, collect and fix evidence, and promote occupational disease diagnosis.
I hope his illness can be cured soon, and I also hope that the harm he has suffered can be compensated. My ability is limited, and I can only write articles to speak out for him and other occupational disease patients.
Finally, I want to say that seeing such injustice, I am indeed very angry, which is why I stand up and say a few words.
In the previous deleted article, someone commented, “At such an old age, still acting like a hot-headed youth all day long.” I replied, “Thank you for the compliment.”
Yes, I consider being a “hot-headed youth” a compliment, and I like this term. I don’t want to pretend to be “enlightened” or “wise”; I am willing to be passionate and angry!
As my respected teacher Bao Pengshan said:
“If a person sees many injustices and many heinous acts, and feels nothing, has no moral pain, it is not maturity, it is numbness. It is not a high realm, but the annihilation of conscience.“
——The End——
Discover more from 自由档案馆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
