Due to the general lack of central heating systems, winter in the southern part of China is also freezing, with locals describing it as “wet-cold”, or “humid-cold”. One of Shanghai’s political advisors has put forward a proposal about low-temperature allowances, to care for more workers in the city.

The proposal is now being reviewed at the 3rd session of the 13th CPPCC Shanghai Committee.

Put forward by Jiang Haitao, a member of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee, it says that employers who have staff working outdoors inwinter should payallowances.

The proposal was based on an online survey by the Shanghai General Labour Union. Among the 7,000 respondents, over 90% believe that an allowance system is necessary. 83% of them think the allowances should be granted to staff working outdoors inwinteror who fail to keep the temperature of their indoor workplaces above 5 degrees Celsius.

In Shanghai’s winter, the absolute outdoor temperatures are higher than in North China. But the humid cold weather and the lack of central heating systems still lead to low apparent temperatures. In such weather, workers are susceptible to frostbite, respiratory diseases, joint damage and cardiovascular diseases.

According to Jiang, back in 2015, “low temperatures” was listed among the factors of occupational diseases by the national authorities. Even though there is no such allowance in North China, the workers are granted a series of winter allowances and compensations. This shows that low-temperature allowance is as important as high-temperature allowance. The latter currently mean that employers who have staff working outdoors insummeror fail to keep the temperature of their indoor workplaces under 33 degrees Celsius should pay a 200-yuan monthlyallowancefrom June to September, according to Shanghai’s labor regulations.