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On April 2, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court held a hearing to hear the administrative confirmation case. Photo/Sichuan Provincial High People's Court website

From June 9 to 15, my country experienced its first regional high temperature weather this year, four days earlier than usual. Photo/Visual China

On the afternoon of July 19, six years ago, Luo Yi fainted from heatstroke at a construction site in Anzhou District, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province.

This was his third day working at this construction site. His working environment was a foundation pit several meters deep and about 100 meters wide, with direct sunlight overhead. The residential project was laying the foundation, and he was responsible for supporting the formwork and building the building frame. When he was admitted to the hospital, Luo Yi's body temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, and he was diagnosed with "heat stroke" - the most serious form of heat stroke, and was immediately rushed to the intensive care unit. When he fainted from heat stroke, his head hit the ground and caused a contusion. This, together with the high temperature, caused his intracranial pressure to increase, and the doctor opened a small hole in his skull to decompress it. Six days later, Luo Yi died despite failed rescue efforts.

The migrant worker was 51 years old at the time and was the backbone of a rural family. Although Luo Yi did not have a labor contract, the project had just bought him work injury insurance the day before he fainted, which made him entitled to work injury compensation. He only needed to go to the human resources and social security department to obtain work injury certification according to the process.

But this road is difficult. It was not until May 15 this year that the family received 756,000 yuan in work-related death compensation.

In the past six years, at least two prosecutors and seven lawyers have been busy with this. On April 2 this year, the case was heard in the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court (hereinafter referred to as the "Sichuan Provincial High Court"). The Chief Prosecutor of the Sichuan Provincial People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the "Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate") appeared in court to support the protest, and the President of the Sichuan Provincial High Court served as the presiding judge.

A staff member of the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter that the setting of "two heads in one court" is not common, and the purpose is to announce the importance of the case and strengthen the public's understanding of this fact: occupational heatstroke is an occupational disease and can be identified as a work-related injury. The case has also been included in the typical cases issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

On July 25, 2018, the Anzhou District People's Hospital of Mianyang City issued a medical profile for Luo Yi. Photo provided by the interviewee

No recognition of work-related injury

The summer of 2018 was the "hottest summer ever". From July 14 to August 15 of that year, the Central Meteorological Observatory issued high temperature warnings for 33 consecutive days for the first time. Sichuan Shengbo Law Firm is only 100 meters away from the construction site where Luo Yi works. Lawyer Cheng Mang works there and he knows how hot it was during those days.

But he was new to heat-related injuries and deaths. He had been practicing medicine since 1998, and this was the first time he had heard of heat stroke, a disease that develops quickly and has a high mortality rate.

He took the case without much thought. From the perspective of traditional work injury identification, Luo Yi died after fainting at the construction site, and his head was bruised when he fell to the ground, which meets the conditions for identifying work injuries based on the "three work" factors - accident injuries caused by work during working hours and in the workplace.

Generally speaking, work-related injuries are divided into accidental injuries and occupational disease injuries. In the work-related injury protection system, these are two completely different situations. The former are mostly external injuries caused by a single accident, while the latter are related to long-term occupational environment. Cheng Mang wants to take the first path.

From this perspective, "it should be a very common case," Cheng Mang recalled. Considering that the family was not well-off, he even confiscated the agency fee and told Luo Xi, "If you win the case, I will pay you. If you don't win, forget it."

In fact, if a worker gets heatstroke while working, it is a clear path to identify the worker's work injury as an "occupational disease" that has long been determined in the system design. According to Article 14 of the "Work Injury Insurance Regulations", occupational diseases should be identified as work injuries. The current "Classification and Catalog of Occupational Diseases" was published in 2013. Among the occupational diseases caused by physical factors, the first item is heatstroke. Even in the lists of occupational diseases published in my country in 2002 and 1987, heatstroke was already listed.

But many people, including Cheng Mang, are not familiar with this. According to Changjiang.com, as of September 4, 2019, there were 572 cases of heat stroke reported in Wuhan that year, and only one carpenter applied for occupational disease diagnosis from the Wuhan Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment Institute.

More importantly, compared with occupational diseases and work injuries, accident injuries have fewer identification links. Head contusion was also one of the causes of Luo Yi's death. If it can be determined as an accident injury, it will be better for Cheng Mang and the parties involved. However, the subsequent judicial appraisal and testimony of co-workers made it impossible to rigorously prove this idea. The judicial appraisal report reads: heat stroke and sunstroke are established; there is a high possibility that the head hit the ground and intracranial injury occurred during the fall. The word "possible" means room for discussion. The testimony of co-workers mentioned: "At about 7 pm, Luo Yi was walking out of the construction site when he suddenly suffered from heat stroke and fell to the ground." There was no mention of "head hitting the ground".

On October 29, 2018, Luo Yi's family applied to the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau (hereinafter referred to as "Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau") for work injury recognition. On November 9, the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau notified them to submit the supplementary occupational disease diagnosis certificate.

This means that Cheng Mang can only go back to the path of occupational disease. The team's top priority is to obtain a key piece of evidence: an occupational disease diagnosis certificate issued by a medical institution with occupational disease diagnosis qualifications.

Unlike ordinary diagnoses in hospitals, occupational disease diagnosis must be conducted in specialized institutions. There are 132 statutory occupational diseases in my country. As of the end of 2018, there were 478 occupational disease diagnosis institutions across the country. Each diagnosis institution has different diagnostic qualifications. Occupational disease diagnosis doctors can only diagnose the occupational disease category for which they have obtained the qualification certificate. In addition to confirming the condition and cause of death, they must also establish the causal relationship between occupational history and disease.

The Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau gave Cheng Mang and his colleagues 15 days to make corrections (legal term, referring to supplementary amendments - reporter's note). Cheng Mang and his colleagues began looking for a diagnostic institution.

At that time, they found that there were several occupational disease diagnosis institutions in Mianyang City, but none of them had the qualifications to diagnose occupational heatstroke. There were only two institutions in Sichuan Province that had the qualifications to diagnose occupational heatstroke, both in Chengdu. Cheng Mang said that several lawyers in the team made many phone calls, and the hospital said that the case could only be accepted if the patient came in person. After the lawyer registered and came to the hospital in Chengdu, the doctor said that the diagnosis could be made based on the medical records and autopsy reports issued by the hospital at the time, but the employer needed to cooperate in providing proof of occupational history.

The occupational history certificate is only one page long and should include "type of work, working hours, exposure to occupational hazards" and be stamped with the employer's official seal. In Luo Yi's case, the hazard column should include: high temperature.

This is the most difficult step. At first, the company applied to the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau for work injury recognition, and the construction company stamped the application form, but later refused to cooperate. After the accident, the company signed a compensation agreement with the family, compensating the family more than 300,000 yuan (in addition to medical expenses). The company proposed to return the money before they cooperated. In fact, the work injury insurance compensation is borne by the work injury insurance fund, and the company does not need to pay. However, according to current regulations, employers may be subject to administrative penalties for failing to provide adequate labor protection measures.

Moreover, what the company and the family signed was only a "compensation agreement." A legal expert explained that compensation is different from compensation. Compensation is only "out of sympathy" and does not mean that the family has given up any right to work injury compensation. The agreement between the two parties also clearly stated that the money would not be reclaimed for any reason.

The correction period had expired, and the occupational disease diagnosis certificate had not been issued. Soon, the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau decided not to recognize the work injury.

After her father passed away, Luo Xi couldn't eat or sleep, and lost 10 pounds in a week. She was so stressed that she couldn't even cry. In those years, she was either working or doing rights protection work. She didn't want to give up: "This matter must have a result in the end."

In December 2018, Luo Yi’s family submitted a statement to the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, describing the difficulty in obtaining occupational disease diagnosis certificates and the fact that “correction is not possible”. Photo/Photo provided by the interviewee

Prosecutors step in

Two years had passed when the case came to Wu Yang, prosecutor of the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as "Mianyang Municipal Procuratorate"), in February 2021.

What Wu Yang saw was a case file of several hundred pages. It contained materials that were rejected by the court at the first instance, the second instance, and the retrial. A case must fully try the court's relief channels before it can finally be brought to the prosecutor. Since he started working, Cheng Mang has represented thousands of cases, but only a few have reached the stage of applying for supervision by the procuratorate.

This case file of several hundred pages shows another effort by the family and the lawyers:

Dissatisfied with the determination of the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the family filed an administrative lawsuit with the Anzhou District People's Court of Mianyang City in May 2019. The court ruled that the determination of the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau was wrong and a new determination should be made within a time limit.

The court's opinion at the time was consistent with Cheng Mang's original idea: he was injured in an accident (suddenly fainted after suffering from heatstroke, causing his head to hit the ground) during working hours and in the workplace due to work reasons (continuous work in a high temperature environment).

The Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau was dissatisfied with the first-instance result and filed a second-instance lawsuit with the Mianyang Intermediate People's Court (hereinafter referred to as "Mianyang Intermediate Court"). The second-instance opinion pointed out the loopholes in the first instance: there was insufficient evidence that Luo Yi's head hit the ground when he fell; although he suffered from heat stroke, he did not have an occupational disease diagnosis certificate, which could not prove that this was an "occupational disease."

The court of second instance ruled in favor of the Mianyang Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. The family filed a request for a retrial with the Sichuan Provincial High Court, which was quickly rejected.

Prosecutor Wu Yang has been doing procuratorial supervision for more than 20 years. After seeing the case file, he felt that due to the lack of evidence, the findings of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the second-instance judgment of the court were correct. Objectively speaking, he felt that the first-instance judgment was a bit "sympathetic to the weak" and the evidence was weak. The Human Resources and Social Security Bureau also has the obligation to protect the security of state funds, "this is a natural duty", and they made a decision based on the existing evidence, which Wu Yang thought was fine.

The prosecutor said that if this type of case is handled simply, it can be closed and the conclusion of "no support for supervision" can be made.

"There is nothing wrong with us doing this, and neither is the court nor the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. But we are always thinking about one question - how can the people feel fairness?" said Wu Yang.

"Giving him a chance to be diagnosed is the fairest thing to do." Wu Yang went back to the key evidence of occupational disease diagnosis.

The lawyer compiled a list of medical institutions in Sichuan Province that are qualified to diagnose occupational heatstroke. Wu Yang looked up the hospital consultation phone number on the map according to the list, explained Luo Yi's situation in the name of a family member, and transferred the call to the corresponding department consultation phone number. He made more than a dozen calls, including those in Deyang, Guangyuan, and Chengdu's provincial hospitals, and the answers on the phone were that they would not accept the case, and most of the reasons were "not receiving medical treatment here."

Because he was repeatedly rejected on the phone, in September 2021, when the local COVID-19 epidemic was severe, Wu Yang opened a letter of introduction from the procuratorate and went to the West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu (hereinafter referred to as "West China Fourth Hospital") with his lawyer. He talked for a long time with the doctor who was attending at the time. The doctor did not refuse to accept the application, but still required the employer to provide a certificate of occupational history.

After returning to Mianyang, Wu Yang visited the employer twice as a prosecutor, and even brought along the leaders of the Anzhou District Procuratorate. The company's CEO came to receive them, but still "found various excuses" to refuse to produce the materials.

According to the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases" revised in December 2018, if the employer does not cooperate in providing a certificate of occupational history, the occupational disease diagnosis medical institution can ask the local health administrative department to intervene. Wu Yang remembered that West China Fourth Hospital sent a letter to the Anzhou District Health and Family Planning Bureau of Mianyang City, and he also went to the bureau to ask, but was rejected.

China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporters saw a stamped written reply from the Health Bureau to West China Fourth Hospital, dated March 22, 2022. The reply stated that the incident occurred in July 2018 and should be subject to the third revision of the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law in 2017. At that time, the "work safety supervision and management department" was responsible for this, not the "health administrative department" stipulated in the fourth revision of the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law in December 2018.

This approach still didn't work, so Wu Yang and West China Fourth Hospital had no choice but to come up with a "workaround" in which the procuratorate would issue a certificate to the hospital.

Wu Yang said that Luo Yi's professional history was "already ascertained" in the first and second trials of the court. He extracted the contents in the case file that could prove his work content and exposure to high temperatures and wrote a certificate. "Our procuratorate is responsible and our procuratorate stamped it." This is the first time that the Mianyang City Procuratorate has issued such materials to a medical institution.

West China Fourth Hospital finally accepted this exceptional certificate. On April 28, 2022, three doctors jointly issued a "Certificate of Occupational Disease Diagnosis" for Luo Yi, diagnosing him with "occupational heatstroke (heat stroke)." At this time, it had been nearly four years since Luo Yi's death.

Based on this new evidence, the Mianyang City Procuratorate submitted a retrial procuratorial suggestion to the Mianyang City Intermediate People's Court, suggesting that a retrial be initiated. However, the evidence was not accepted by the Mianyang Intermediate People's Court. Later, Wu Yang heard that there was a dispute within the court, and some people believed that this evidence appeared too late and needed to be scrutinized.

For prosecutors, this is another moment to give up. Most cases stop at this point. But Wu Yang couldn't figure it out. He felt that the evidence was strong enough. After collective discussion, on February 13, 2023, the Mianyang Municipal Procuratorate requested the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate to appeal to the Sichuan Provincial High Court.

Later, Wu Yang recalled to the China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter: "We should thank the provincial procuratorate. Our only option is to ask the provincial procuratorate to appeal. If the provincial procuratorate does not support us, we will have no other options."

On January 25, 2019, the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau made a decision not to recognize the work-related injury. Photo/Photo provided by the interviewee

Activate Sleep Clause

In February 2023, the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate took over the case and launched a new round of investigation. Wei Wei, the case handler, went to Mianyang seven or eight times, visited the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, employers, lawyers, prosecutors, and family members, asking all the details from the beginning. On November 14, 2023, based on the investigation results, the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate finally filed an appeal with the Sichuan Provincial High Court.

The case also received attention from the Sichuan Provincial High Court. Wei Wei said that after entering the protest stage, the two courts continued to disagree on details, and they finally reached a consensus: "The family of the deceased was initially unable to submit the occupational disease diagnosis certificate due to objective reasons, and the parties involved should not be held responsible for the adverse consequences."

On March 29, 2024, the two courts jointly issued a rare judicial (procuratorial) recommendation to the Mianyang Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, suggesting that the Mianyang Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security restart the work injury identification procedure. Wei Wei explained that in the past, it was often one person who issued it, called a judicial recommendation or a procuratorial recommendation. Previously, the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate also proposed to issue a procuratorial recommendation to the human resources and social security department. The Mianyang Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security stated that the second-instance judgment of the Mianyang Intermediate Court was still in effect, and the identification could not be restarted based solely on the procuratorial recommendation.

On April 2, at the Sichuan Provincial High Court, the Mianyang Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau stated that it would restart the work injury identification procedure based on new evidence. The parties expressed their willingness to withdraw their request for retrial to the Sichuan Provincial High Court. The judge approved the request and ended the retrial procedure. On May 15, the family received 765,000 yuan in work injury compensation.

Among the audience at the trial, representatives from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, the Health Commission, the West China Fourth Hospital, and the Law School of Sichuan University were invited to listen. Wei Wei told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter that the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate will issue social governance recommendations with the Sichuan Provincial High Court, suggesting that the Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and the Health Department improve their work to prevent the problems exposed by the case from recurring.

Looking back on the case, prosecutor Wu Yang and lawyer Cheng Mang always felt that there was a problem with the system design: this road was blocked, and the parties had no chance to get a diagnosis, which was a "vicious circle."

A doctor from West China Fourth Hospital who participated in the diagnosis of Luo Yi's occupational diseases told China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporters that he believed that the occupational disease diagnosis process was relatively complete, "if everyone can consciously assume their responsibilities in accordance with national regulations, there should be no obstacles as a whole."

my country's current occupational disease diagnosis and management system is mainly written by one law and one document: the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law revised in 2018 and the "Occupational Disease Diagnosis and Identification Management Measures" (Order No. 6 of the National Health Commission) issued in 2021 (hereinafter referred to as "Order No. 6"). Most of the provisions of the two are similar.

Among them, there are indeed rich institutional designs for problems that may arise in the diagnosis process.

Both the Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Law and Order No. 6 clearly state that if a worker requests an occupational disease diagnosis in accordance with the law, "occupational disease diagnosis institutions shall not refuse the worker's request for occupational disease diagnosis."

Both Wu Yang and Cheng Mang told China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporters that between 2018 and 2021, they called the consultation hotlines of more than a dozen medical institutions in the province with the qualifications to diagnose occupational heatstroke in the name of family members, including the provincial hospital in Chengdu, but were rejected because "the patients wanted to come in person" and "did not receive medical treatment here."

The doctor who participated in Luo Yi's diagnosis at the West China Fourth Hospital told reporters that the hospital actually did not have such a requirement. As long as the medical records, diagnosis and other information were complete, the patient did not have to come in person. Wang Yan, deputy chief physician of the occupational disease department of Jinan Hospital, told China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporters that Jinan Hospital did not have such a requirement either. This type of retrospective diagnosis of heat stroke can always be done.

Lawyer Guan Tieliu has been professionally representing occupational disease cases for many years. He said that he has never encountered a case where a diagnosis institution refused to accept the case because "they did not receive medical treatment here". However, in the past two years, he has indeed learned of at least 10 cases in his work where workers were rejected by the diagnosis institution for "some unexpected reasons". In a consultation with a noise-induced deafness patient in 2022, the patient emphasized that a diagnosis institution in Shenzhen requires a letter from the unit before accepting the case, and the employer must first issue a letter to the hospital before accepting the case. In fact, this is a system from 2002.

In 2022, Zhu Xiaokai, a lawyer at Shandong Chongbian Law Firm, also represented a case of heat stroke identification as a work-related injury. His experience is that the diagnosis agency's acceptance is relatively smooth, and the case is still stuck at the next step: the employer issues a letter of certification of occupational history to the diagnosis agency.

The aforementioned Order No. 6 mentions that when an occupational disease diagnosis institution conducts an occupational disease diagnosis, it shall notify the employee's employer in writing to provide occupational disease diagnosis information, and the employer shall provide it truthfully within ten days of receiving the notification.

Wang Yan told reporters that in practice, hospitals would send letters to employers via EMS after receiving patients, asking them to provide information within a specified period of time. However, Zhu Xiaokai said that he felt that such letters were "like bank bills for repayment" and were not very effective.

If the hospital's official letter does not work, Article 24 of Order No. 6 stipulates: Occupational disease diagnosis institutions may request the health and health authorities to urge employers to provide it in accordance with the law.

Zhu Xiaokai's case went through this stage. Although the case was later successfully awarded a certificate of employment history due to various reasons, his perception is that "most of this kind of supervision only plays a mediation role. It's nothing more than shouting, and there is nothing he can do if the enterprise does not cooperate." In comparison, he feels that in the labor relationship confirmation stage, the enforcement of labor supervision is much stronger, with fines and public announcements.

If the occupational history certificate cannot be obtained after the health department intervenes, Article 28 of Order No. 6 stipulates: Occupational disease diagnosis institutions should make occupational disease diagnosis conclusions based on the worker's clinical manifestations, auxiliary examination results, and the worker's occupational history, history of exposure to occupational hazards, and refer to the worker's self-report or circumstantial evidence from co-workers, daily supervision and inspection information provided by the health and other relevant departments, etc.

There are similar clauses in the Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases. In 2011, when this clause first appeared in the draft amendment, Huang Leping, director of the Beijing Yilian Labor Law Assistance and Research Center, expressed his opinion that "the worker's self-report can be used as a reference" is a highlight of the draft amendment. If it can be fully implemented, it will be a big step forward in resolving the problem of difficulty in diagnosing occupational diseases.

But in 2022, Huang Leping mentioned in an interview with China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that in practice, "occupational disease identification agencies rarely diagnose occupational diseases based on workers' self-reports." Guan Tieliu felt similarly, "Our diagnosis and identification agencies, including the health department, dare not do so."

Cheng Mang can understand the doctor's situation. In his opinion, if a hospital makes a diagnosis without a certificate from the employer, it will "put itself at risk" and may be sued by the employer.

On April 28, 2022, Luo Yi obtained an occupational disease diagnosis certificate. Photo/provided by the interviewee

Pathfinder

"No one understands. No one has seen it, and we are all just exploring the way." Zhu Xiaokai said that recognizing heat stroke as an occupational injury is a "road few people have traveled."

Affected by global warming, my country's average annual temperature in 2023 rose by 0.41 degrees Celsius compared with 2018.

Occupational heatstroke is divided into three types: heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, with increasing severity. Wang Yan told reporters that in recent years, the heatstroke type is the most common type of heatstroke patients who came to Jinan Hospital for occupational disease diagnosis. Wang Yan said that the treatment process of heatstroke is expensive, often requiring a month of hospitalization and the use of expensive medical equipment, and it is common to spend 200,000 yuan. After being recognized as a work-related injury, workers can at least reimburse this huge medical expense.

A lawyer previously mentioned to the media that the difficulty in identifying heat stroke as a work-related injury mainly comes from two aspects. First, it is difficult to confirm the labor relationship. It is difficult to determine the labor relationship of college students who work during the summer vacation and workers who are subcontracted at various levels. Second, it is difficult to diagnose occupational diseases. Because heat stroke is a disease, it cannot be identified as an accidental work-related injury, but must go through the occupational disease diagnosis process.

In Luo Yi's case, the difficulty of the first link was skipped. Although he did not have a labor contract, the project purchased work-related injury insurance for him, so he did not need to go through the trouble of proving the labor relationship. This is related to a policy. After 2014, many places clarified the principle of "first participate in insurance, then start construction". Only with proof of participation in work-related injury insurance can a construction permit be issued.

The difficulty of Luo Yi's case lies mainly in the next link, the diagnosis of occupational diseases.

Cheng Mang also had a question: Since the diagnosis process of occupational diseases is so complicated, is it feasible to skip the diagnosis of occupational diseases and directly identify them as work-related injuries? Heat stroke occurs quickly and subjectively feels like an "accident."

There are 132 occupational diseases in my country's current "Classification and Catalog of Occupational Diseases", most of which are chronic diseases. Acute heatstroke and acute poisoning are special, with rapid onset and rapid onset. There have been discussions on acute poisoning before, asking whether acute poisoning can skip the occupational disease diagnosis link and simplify the steps. Lawyer Guan Tieliu said that in reality, most acute poisonings still require occupational disease diagnosis, but in cases such as acute ammonia leakage accidents, patients may not need occupational disease diagnosis and can directly be identified as work-related injuries "as production safety accidents."

But practice has taught him that simplifying the process is not a panacea.

Most of the work-related injuries are external injuries, and treatment is usually one-time. However, occupational diseases are illnesses, and they often have sequelae, so the need for medical treatment appears slowly in the future. Guan Tieliu said: "People who directly let him do the (accident) work-related injury identification have good intentions, because the (occupational disease) diagnosis is time-consuming and laborious." However, after bypassing the occupational disease diagnosis and directly identifying the work-related injury, there will be trouble in reimbursement of the subsequent treatment costs for the sequelae.

Lawyer Zhu Xiaokai sees another contradiction. He said that work-related injury cases, especially occupational disease work-related injury cases, involve many procedures. If each link is fully negotiated, at least seven or eight lawsuits will be required. There are reasonable aspects in the design of these processes. For example, the pre-trial labor arbitration is intended to protect workers. But in reality, employers will use all legal procedures to delay time, and family members are waiting for money to treat the disease, so they often have no choice but to "reconcile" with the employer. The case of heat stroke recognition work-related injury that he represented took a long time in the labor relationship confirmation stage. When it came to the step of the employer issuing a letter of certification of occupational history, the employer was still delaying, and the parties were almost out of the application period for work-related injury recognition.

Sometimes, the long road to rights protection also tests human nature. Zhu Xiaokai observed that those who are busy defending their rights are mainly the children of patients. Zhu Xiaokai said that sometimes, the more legally savvy the children are, the more likely they are to be afraid of difficulties, give up defending their rights, choose to suffer a loss, and "settle privately" with the employer.

On April 28, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued "Typical Cases of Procuratorial Organs Protecting the Legal Rights and Interests of Workers in Accordance with the Law", and the Luo Yi case was selected.

Looking back on the six years of rights protection, Luo Xi said that she felt "very fortunate" and that "if she had met a slightly irresponsible lawyer or prosecutor, this matter would not have come to an end." She is coming out of the shadow of her father's death. She and her father have always had a good relationship. On the phone, her father always talked about happy things, but Luo Xi still observed that her father worked hard. He worked in Qinghai for two years and was tanned.

Their last conversation was two days before the incident. On the phone, Luo Yi said that he had returned from another place and found a job in Mianyang, and the construction site was not far from the house rented by Luo Xi. Luo Xi was very happy and asked her father to come live with her, and her father said "OK".

After the rights protection was successful, Luo Xi made 6 silk banners, one for Wu Yang, one for the Mianyang City Procuratorate, two for the law firm, and two for the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate. In the end, none of them were successfully sent out. The Chief Prosecutor of the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate replied that this was just their job.

(In order to protect the privacy of the parties involved, Luo Yi and Luo Xi are pseudonyms in this article)

China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Guo Yujie Source: China Youth Daily