Guangdong Province's birth insurance scheme will be extended to migrant workers, the provincial labor and social insurance department has said.

The department recently released a regulation aiming to extend the insurance all workers in Guangdong Province, including migrants. The regulation will take effect on July 1.

The regulation expands the range of workers covered by the scheme to local and migrant employees who have signed labor contracts with State-owned or private companies and factories, social or community-run organizations, governmental or public institutes and foreign or joint-venture companies.

Xia Qing, director of the medical insurance division of the Guangdong labor and social insurance department, said: "The regulation is expected to benefit about 7.5 million people by the end of this year.

"That will be the biggest number covered in the whole country."

Lin Wangping, vice director of the department, said: "Employers must pay at most 1 percent of employees' salary into the province's birth fund foundation every month.

"Employees will not have to pay anything."

For women, the insurance will cover the cost of having a baby in hospital and pay a birth allowance and a nutrition allowance.

For men, it will include the payment of a paternity leave allowance.

More employers in other cities in the province are expected to follow the regulation and buy insurance for migrant workers later this year, Xia said.

Guangdong has more than 20 million migrant workers.

(China Daily May 6, 2008)