三伏天在戶外工作 你拿到高溫補貼了嗎
China, Sweltering, Doles Out Subsidies for High Heat
三伏天在戶外工作，你拿到高溫補貼了嗎？
BEIJING — After three days of torrid heat in Beijing, with thermometer readings in the upper 90s Fahrenheit, the air in the city’s concrete canyons and on its giant ring roads has cooled a little, to 95. Enough for city officials to drop the health warning they had posted on Sunday, as they do whenever temperatures exceed that threshold.
北京——北京經歷了三天的酷熱，溫度計的讀數直奔40攝氏度。然後，混凝土峽谷之間及恢弘的環路上的空氣似乎冷卻了一點，降到了35度，足以讓市政府撤銷了週日發佈的健康警告。每當溫度超過35度閾值的時候，他們就會發出這種警告。
Sure, it is not the heat of the deserts of Rajasthan in India, where temperatures in May crackled to 123.8 degrees. But the air in Beijing and other parts of China can reach 106 in the summer, and work rarely stops on the 24-hour construction sites even under these “bamboo steamer” conditions, as The Beijing Evening News described them.
當然，北京沒有印度拉賈斯坦邦的沙漠那麼熱，今年5月那裏的溫度高達51度。不過，根據《北京晚報》的報道，北京和中國其他一些地區的夏季氣溫可以達到42度，但即使在這種類似“蒸籠”的條件下，一些24小時施工的建築工地也很少停工。
China has something rare to address the problem. By law, many people who work outdoors are eligible for a heat subsidy when temperatures go above 95, or 35 degrees Celsius — a pay supplement that in Beijing amounts to 180 renminbi a month, or $27, China News Service reported.
中國用一種罕見的辦法來應對這個問題。中國新聞網報道，根據法律規定，當溫度超過35攝氏度的時候，很多在戶外工作的人就有資格享受高溫補貼——在北京，這種補貼的標準是每個月180元人民幣。
Employers do not always give the money, and workers may not know about it or may fear losing their jobs if they ask, said a business and legal consultancy based in Shanghai.
總部設在上海的一家業務和法律諮詢公司稱，僱主並不總是按規定支付這筆錢，員工也許不知道有這種補貼，或者可能擔心，要是自己向僱主討要，就會失去工作。
“Employees have the right to file a complaint if an employer fails to pay, but rarely do in fear of repercussions,” reported China Briefing, a newsletter of the consultancy, Dezan Shira & Associates. “In many cases, employees aren’t even aware of the allowance.”
“如果僱主不發高溫補貼，僱員有權提出申訴，但他們很少這麼做，擔心導致不利後果，”協力管理諮詢公司(Dezan Shira & Associates)的新聞通訊服務China Briefing稱。“有很多時候，僱員甚至不知道有這筆津貼”。
Several people in Beijing who work on contract, or without any contract, laughed when asked whether they had received the subsidy, as temperatures soared this week.
當被問及本週氣溫飆升期間是否拿到了補貼時，幾名在北京工作的工人笑了起來，他們中有些簽了合同，有些沒有籤。
“Who gets that?!” asked one man, in a typical response.
“有誰拿到了？！”有一個人問。這是很典型的反應。
In the face of global warming and rising temperatures that are affecting human health and productivity worldwide, might the Chinese practice, which aims to protect people’s health, catch on? Could such subsidies become a cost of doing business in a hotter world?
在世界各地，全球變暖和溫度日益上升對人類健康和生產力產生了影響。既然如此，中國用高溫補貼來保護大家健康的做法，會流行起來嗎？當世界變得更熱，這種補貼可能成爲做生意的一種成本嗎？
While there is some public discussion in China about the long-term human or economic implications of global warming, in general the implications of rising heat are poorly studied, wrote Rui-Dan Chen, a scientist at Sun Yat-sen University in the southern city of Guangzhou, and Ri-Yu Lu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, in a recent review of published material on extreme heat in the journal Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters. The authors defined extreme heat as temperatures that exceeded 95 degrees.
雖然在中國，人們也對全球變暖對人類或經濟的長期影響進行了一些公開討論，但廣州中山大學的科學家陳銳丹以及北京中國科學院的陸日宇近日在《大氣和海洋科學快報》(Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters)上發表的一篇綜述文章寫道，總體而言，中國關於升溫影響的研究非常少。他們把超過35攝氏度定義爲極端高溫，全面回顧了已經發表的關於這方面的文獻。
China, like everywhere else, is experiencing those rising temperatures and also rising deaths related to heat, the authors said, quoting the World Meteorological Organization. During the decade ending in 2010, they said, 136,000 deaths were caused by heat waves, an increase of 2,300 percent over the 6,000 deaths recorded in the previous decade.
作者引用世界氣象組織 (World Meteorological Organization)的資料稱，在中國，像在其他地方一樣，氣溫不斷上升，與高溫有關的死亡案例也在增加。在截至2010年的十年中，有13.6萬人因熱浪死亡，而之前十年的這個數字爲6000人，增幅達2300%。
“Extreme heat events have become an important public concern,” the authors wrote. But far more attention is paid to “precipitation extremes,” they said, “possibly due to the long history of China as a traditional agricultural country.”
作者寫道，“極端高溫事件逐漸成爲公衆關注的一個重要焦點。”但人們對“極端降水事件”的關注遠遠更多，他們說，“可能是因爲中國是一個歷史悠久的傳統農業國。”
China has a record of flooding along its rivers, especially in the center and south of the country, and leaders regularly appear at major floods to demonstrate support for rescue efforts.
中國河流的洪澇災害比較常見，尤其是在中心和南部地區。發生大洪水時領導人常常會出面，顯示對救援工作的支持。
Despite the patchy enforcement of the regulations, the government appears to be trying to raise consciousness of the heat subsidies, not least among foreign employers who may need to pay them to their workers.
儘管高溫補貼的條例執行不力，政府似乎正在設法提高這方面的意識，尤其是針對可能需要向僱員支付補貼的外國僱主。
In an article in June in its “Learning Chinese” section, the state-run newspaper Global Times offered the following dialogue about the subsidies:
官方報紙《環球時報》在“學漢語”欄目6月發表的一篇文章中，刊登了下面這段關於高溫補貼的對話：
“It’s way too hot today! Too bad, I still have to work,” “A” said.
A：“今天太熱了！可惜我還得上班。”
“Don’t let it get you down,” “B” urged. “Workers that work during sweltering summer days have a right to a ‘high heat subsidy’!”
B：“別悶悶不樂了，酷暑時期上班，可享受高溫補貼哦！”
The amounts vary across the country. Shanxi Province, in the north, offers 240 renminbi a month, while Guangdong, in the far south, provides a relatively low 150 renminbi, according to China News Service.
地區不同，補貼的金額也不同。中國新聞網表示，在北部省份山西，高溫補貼一個月有240元人民幣，南部省份廣東只有150元。
Some provinces mandate complex calculations based on daily, or even hourly, rates and temperatures, an exercise that might cause anyone trying to figure it out to break into a sweat.
一些省份根據溫度和日薪、乃至時薪進行復雜的計算，任何人想要算清楚可能都會出一身汗。
