When Xia Shihua was disabled in a mining accident, he sued the mine for compensation but was frustrated on three occasions by the obstacles thrown in his way by the courts and his former employer.

Han Dongfang talks to a group of migrant workers who contracted the deadly lung disease pneumoconiosis whilst working as explosives and drill operators on Shenzhen’s construction sites in the 1990s.

Two victims of silicosis, both employed at Lucky Jewellery in Guangdong, tell Han Dongfang how collusion between the factory and local government had stymied their attempts to get the compensation they were legally entitled to.

Han Dongfang talks to a university graduate who accepted a job selling pharmaceutical products that promised a base salary of 1,000 yuan plus commission. However, he discovered, the reality for sales personnel after recruitment was very different.

Two community teachers from Jianchang county in Liaoning, both fired by the local government in 2007, talk about their attempts to seek redress and the corrupt and underhand activities of local officials.

Han Dongfang talks to a building sub-contractor who knew his contractor had used cheap cement but rather than report the hazard to the authorities, he used the evidence to blackmail the contractor into paying the wages his workers were owed.

Nearly a quarter of the workforce at a state-owned tobacco plant in Henan have had their wages slashed and their employment contracts “spun off” to an employment agency as part of the enterprise’s restructuring program.

Hotel employee, Zhu Peifang was summarily dismissed after 24 years of service, with no compensation, no year-end bonus and no wages for her work the previous month. With the help of CLB, Zhu was reinstated and paid six month’s wages in arrears.

Tang Liyong organized about one hundred fellow labourers to work on a retail and residential construction project in Anshan in 2006-07. More than a year after the project was completed, Tang and his colleagues had still not been paid. They are collectively owed more than 600,000 yuan.

Han Dongfang talks to Dai Deshu, a 67-year-old former tailor from Chongqing about the long and painful struggle of thousands of elderly artisans and handicraft workers discarded during the process of economic reform.