The situation has improved compared to 2007, when only 12.5% of migrants appeared to have a contract. But the new law, celebrated by the government as the solution to the rights of migrants, is not often applied, especially by small and medium enterprises. Among other things, this means that these workers are deprived of social insurance and can be fired at any time.

Some 40% of those who were interviewed from the Centres for rights have suffered accidents at work and 55% had not yet received wages in arrears. The violation of other rights ensured by the new law is also the frequent: more than half of the employees work beyond 8 hours per day and 93% receive low compensation for overtime or nothing at all.

The data is completely at odds with the official statistics of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Assembly, whose findings show that 93% of larger companies have signed regular contracts with employees.

Experts say that the findings concern, rather, small and medium enterprises, which make greater use of migrant labour and for whom it is more beneficial to violate the law. They say that public controls should be increased if the government really wants to protect workers rather than sacrificing them to the needs of foreign companies encouraged to invest in China because of the lack of protection of the rights of employees. In December, a scandal exploded in the French multinational Carrefour, accused of forcing employees to sign contracts with third party procurers of labour, so as to avoid any direct responsibility.