Chinese home appliance repairers are poorly paid and receive little social security, even though the country is the world's largest home appliance producer, a recent survey said.

About 80 percent of the workers, in the after-sale service departments or professional repairing firms of home appliances, live on a monthly salary of less than 800 yuan (US$96.4) and 40 percent receive less than 500 yuan (US$60.4) a month, said the survey, conducted by the Chinese Association of Maintenance for Home Appliance (CAMHA).

About 200,000 people, including 10,000 minors, are working in this business in China and 70 percent of them are rural migrant workers. The migrant workers often do not receive higher education, according to the survey report released Tuesday.

About 90 percent of the employers fail to buy endowment insurance for their service personnel while 69 percent fail to provide work injury insurance, the survey said.

Thirty percent of these workers work seven days a week and five percent of them work more than 10 hours a day, it said.

Although they often work overtime, workers are frequently fired because about 80 percent of companies do not sign employment contracts, it added.

"Maintenance service is not as profitable as manufacturing in China," said Wang Yukui, vice secretary of CAMHA, "Thin profits make it hard for companies to raise pay or buy insurance for their employees."

According to the CAMHA, less than 40 percent of the home appliance maintenance companies in China report an annual revenue of 200,000 yuan (US$24,000).

Home appliance manufacturers are inclined to consider after-sale service a money-losing burden.

Wang said the government should pay more attention to the development of maintenance sector and protect the basic rights of the service personnel.

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2004)