FairTea2030

Each demand below is paired with the reason behind it, in plain language, and with what the published evidence shows. The policy mechanics are set out in full in the white paper.下面每一项诉求都配有它背后的理由(用平实的语言),以及已发表的证据。具体的政策机制详见白皮书。 Read the white paper阅读白皮书

A picker in a pink sun hat working in the tea rows
01

Seasonal employment insurance季节性用工保险

A basic safety net for seasonal farm workers that covers injuries, medical costs and pensions, funded by government and employers together.由政府与企业共同出资,为季节性农业工人建立覆盖工伤、医疗与养老的基本保障。

Why it matters为什么重要

Most pickers are over fifty. They climb wet slopes before dawn, bend for twelve hours and carry full baskets down. One fall, one bad back, one week of fever, and the season's income is gone, with the hospital bill still to pay.大多数采茶工年过五十。她们天不亮就爬上湿滑的山坡,弯腰十二个小时,再把满篓的鲜叶背下山。一次摔倒、一次腰伤、一周高烧,这一季的收入就没了,医院的账单还要自己付。

Because the work is short and informal, the insurance that protects a factory worker does not reach them. A four-week harvest needs a four-week policy, cheap enough that a county or a cooperative can buy it for everyone who registers.因为这份工作又短又非正式,保护工厂工人的那套保险到不了她们身上。四周的采摘季需要一份四周的保单,便宜到一个县或一家合作社可以为每一位登记在册的人买下。

What the evidence says证据怎么说

China's work-injury insurance regulations apply only to employing units, and a farming household hiring pickers is not one; a Henan court awarded a picker of nearly seventy 6,000 yuan of a 106,000-yuan claim on exactly that ground. In Xinyang, a 2025 scheme insured about 70,000 pickers in a city that needs about 1.5 million at peak.中国的工伤保险条例只适用于用人单位,雇用采茶工的农户不在其列;河南一家法院正是据此只判给一位年近七十的采茶工6000元(她主张10.6万元)。在信阳,2025年的保险方案覆盖了约7万名采茶工,而该市高峰期需要约150万人。10967

What we are asking for, specifically我们具体要求什么

A seasonal injury-and-illness policy bought per registered picker, covering accidents, heat stress and acute medical costs for the harvest window, co-funded by county government and the gardens or factories that buy the leaf.按登记采茶工人数购买的季节性意外与疾病保险,覆盖采摘期内的工伤、中暑和急性医疗费用,由县政府与收购鲜叶的茶园或茶厂共同出资。

A calculator and a ledger on a table at the collection point
02

Collective contracts and fair wages集体合同与公平薪酬

Let pickers bargain together with cooperatives and companies, with wages paid on time and in full view.让采茶工能够与合作社和企业集体协商,工资按时、公开发放。

Why it matters为什么重要

Pay is set by the garden, counted on a calculator at the weigh-in, and written on a ticket. The picker has no say in the rate, no way to check the grade she is given, and if her leaf is marked down to grade two she loses a day's money without appeal.工钱由茶园定,在称重时用计算器算出来,写在一张茶票上。采茶工对价格没有发言权,无法核对自己的定级,鲜叶一旦被降为二级,一天的钱就没了,也没处申诉。

Migrant pickers are often paid in one lump on the day they leave. When something goes wrong in between, they have nothing in hand and nobody to turn to. A posted rate, a posted payment date and someone who negotiates for the group would change that.外来采茶工往往要等到离开那天才一次性结清。中间出了问题,她们手里什么也没有,也找不到人说理。公示的价格、公示的发薪日,和一个替大家谈判的人,会改变这一切。

What the evidence says证据怎么说

Migrant pickers in Zhejiang earn 180 to 200 yuan a day against about 250 for locals working shorter hours; a twelve-hour day for 150 to 200 yuan is 12.5 to 16.5 yuan an hour, below Anhui's minimum wage of 18. In Anji, 90 percent of tea labour disputes came from vague terms, and a court-designed standard contract has now been signed by over 10,000 pickers.浙江外来采茶工日薪180至200元,本地工工时更短却约250元;十二小时挣150至200元,折合每小时12.5至16.5元,低于安徽18元的最低时薪。在安吉,90%的涉茶劳务纠纷源于约定不明,法院设计的标准合同已有上万名采茶工签署。348

What we are asking for, specifically我们具体要求什么

Women's picker associations negotiate a floor piece rate and rest periods with cooperatives and factories each season; day rates and payment dates are posted at the collection point; disputes go to a named mediator before they become unpaid wages.采茶女工协会每季与合作社、茶厂协商计件底价和休息时间;日薪与发薪日期张贴在收茶点;纠纷先交由指定调解人处理,而不是变成欠薪。

Worn fingertips of a tea picker
03

Health care in the fields田间医疗服务

Mobile clinics and check-up stations in tea districts during the harvest, with screening for the injuries this work causes.采摘季在茶区设立流动诊所与体检点,筛查采茶劳动造成的职业损伤。

Why it matters为什么重要

Every bud is pinched off between thumb and forefinger, forty to fifty thousand times a day. After weeks of that the skin splits, the joints swell and the back locks. The clinic is far, the day off costs money, and so nobody goes.每一颗芽头都靠拇指与食指掐下,一天四五万次。几周下来,皮肤裂开,关节肿起,腰直不起来。诊所太远,请一天假要少挣一天的钱,于是谁也不去。

During the peak weeks the women are all in one place, in the gardens and the sheds. A mobile clinic that comes to them, screens for the injuries this work causes and refers the serious cases, reaches more people in a day than a county hospital does in a season.采摘高峰期,女工们都集中在茶园和工棚里。一辆开到她们身边的流动诊所,筛查这份劳动造成的损伤,把严重的转诊出去,一天触及的人比县医院一季还多。

What the evidence says证据怎么说

A skilled picker repeats the same motion 40,000 to 50,000 times a day. Pickers report heatstroke and days frozen in single-digit temperatures; the disease control agency names tea pickers as a high-risk group for a tick-borne fever that killed a quarter of cases in one Zhejiang county. Resident medical insurance paid 66 percent of in-list hospital costs in 2025, on an average stay of 7,339 yuan.熟练采茶工一天重复同一个动作4至5万次。采茶工说队里有人中暑,也有人在个位数气温里冻过;疾控部门把采茶工列为蜱传发热伴血小板减少综合征的高风险人群,浙江一个县的病死率达四分之一。2025年居民医保住院费用目录内报销66%,次均住院费用7339元。5131411

What we are asking for, specifically我们具体要求什么

Mobile clinics and check-up stations in tea districts for the harvest weeks, with musculoskeletal screening, heat-stress prevention and a clear, posted path to reimbursement under resident medical insurance.采摘季在茶区设立流动诊所与体检点,提供骨骼关节筛查、防暑指导,并张贴清晰的城乡居民医保报销流程。

Fresh leaves being poured into a basin at the weigh-in
04

Transparency from tea brands茶企透明与问责

Retailers and brands publish how the people who pick their tea are paid and protected.茶叶零售商与品牌公开其采茶工的薪酬与保障情况。

Why it matters为什么重要

Tea is sold on origin, grade and story. Nobody sells it on how the picker was paid, because nobody has to say. A brand that publishes the day rate, the insurance and the housing behind its spring tea gives buyers a reason to prefer it, and gives every other brand a reason to catch up.茶叶按产地、等级和故事定价,却没有人按采茶工的报酬来卖茶,因为没有人需要说。一个公开春茶背后日薪、保险和住宿情况的品牌,会让消费者有理由选择它,也让其他品牌有理由跟上。

A yearly scorecard is a small ask. The numbers already exist on the pay tickets and in the factory's books. Publishing them turns a private arrangement into a public standard.一份年度评分表并不苛求。这些数字已经写在茶票上、记在茶厂的账本里。公开它们,就把私下的安排变成了公开的标准。

What the evidence says证据怎么说

Picking labour is now more than half the cost of making tea, Anhui growers report, and brokers in Songyang were charging 900 yuan per picker as early as 2018, with pay withheld until the month was complete. The numbers already exist in every garden's ledger; nothing requires them to be published.安徽茶农说,采摘人工已占制茶成本的一半以上;松阳的带工人早在2018年就按每人900元收取中介费,工钱要干满一个月才结。这些数字早就写在每家茶园的账本里,只是没有任何规定要求公开。415

What we are asking for, specifically我们具体要求什么

Retailers and brands publish an annual labor scorecard for their spring tea: day rates paid, insurance provided, housing and drinking water standards, and payment timing, in a common format that lets buyers compare.零售商与品牌每年为其春茶发布劳工评分表:实际日薪、保险、住宿与饮用水标准、发薪时间,采用统一格式,便于比较。

Women at a temporary tent camp beside the tea gardens
05

Recognition in the statistics纳入统计与社会承认

Count seasonal women tea workers in labor statistics and include them when policy is written.将季节性采茶女工纳入劳动统计,并在政策制定中听取她们的意见。

Why it matters为什么重要

What is not counted is not protected. The women who pick China's spring tea do not appear as a category in labor statistics, so no agency owns the problem and no budget line carries their name.不被统计,就不被保护。采中国春茶的女性在劳动统计里不是一个类别,于是没有哪个部门对这个问题负责,也没有哪一笔预算写着她们的名字。

Recognizing tea picking as skilled work, in county records and in the cultural programs that already celebrate tea, is the first step toward paying for it as skilled work. Their representatives should sit in the room when the policies that touch them are written.在县级记录和那些早已在颂扬茶文化的项目里,承认采茶是一门技术,是为技术付酬的第一步。制定与她们有关的政策时,她们的代表应当在场。

What the evidence says证据怎么说

The national migrant-worker survey counts only people away from home for six months or more, so a three-week picking job does not appear in it at all. The last agricultural census found women to be 47.5 percent of China's 314 million farm workers and a third of them over 55; the 2025 and 2026 Central No. 1 Documents do not mention seasonal farm workers or rural women as a group to insure.全国农民工监测只统计外出六个月以上的人,三周的采茶工作根本不在其中。上一次农业普查发现,中国3.14亿农业生产经营人员中女性占47.5%,三分之一在55岁以上;2025和2026年的中央一号文件都没有把季节性农业工或农村妇女作为参保群体提及。15

What we are asking for, specifically我们具体要求什么

Count seasonal women tea workers as a category in county labor statistics; list tea picking as a skilled craft in local cultural heritage programs; invite picker representatives to the consultations that set harvest-season policy.在县级劳动统计中将季节性采茶女工单列;将采茶技艺纳入地方文化遗产项目;邀请采茶工代表参加制定采摘季政策的协商。

Sources数据来源
  1. Xiang Yipeng, "中国茶产业从业人员超7000万人" [Over 70 million people work in China's tea industry], China News Service, 12 September 2020, reporting a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs survey. Link链接
  2. China Blue News (Zhejiang Radio and Television), "西湖茶山来了AI“采茶工”" [AI pickers come to the West Lake tea hills], 27 April 2025, citing Zhejiang Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs data. Link链接
  3. Chen Yiru, "In China's Tea Heartland, Workers Pick Through Climate Whiplash," Sixth Tone, 15 May 2025. Link链接
  4. Li Jie and Li Shumin, "弹性关系的搭建:大别山区家庭茶园女性采茶佣工关系研究" [Women tea-picking labour in family tea gardens of the Dabie Mountains], Collection of Women's Studies (妇女研究论丛) 2025(2). Link链接
  5. Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, reprinting Nanjing Daily, "采茶季到,上万名“采茶阿姨”又来了" [Picking season: the picking aunties are back], 27 March 2025. Link链接
  6. Liu Xueyou, "信阳保险业全力护航春茶采摘" [Xinyang insurers back the spring tea harvest], Henan County Economy Net, 14 April 2025. Link链接
  7. People's Daily Online, Henan, "大别山区茶飘香" [Tea fragrance in the Dabie Mountains], 16 March 2020, quoting the Xinyang Forestry and Tea Bureau. Link链接
  8. Wang Yanqi, "安吉采茶工有了标准化劳务合同" [Anji tea pickers get a standard labour-service contract], Huzhou Daily, 28 March 2025. Link链接
  9. Luoshan County People's Court, "采茶工采茶期间突发疾病,谁之过?" [A tea picker falls ill during the harvest: whose fault?], Henan High People's Court website, 25 May 2023. Link链接
  10. State Council, 工伤保险条例 [Regulations on Work-Related Injury Insurance], as amended 2010, Article 2; Ministry of Labour, 劳部发〔1995〕309号, Article 4. Link链接
  11. Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 2025年度人力资源和社会保障事业发展统计公报 [2025 Statistical Bulletin], 16 July 2026; National Healthcare Security Administration, 2025年全国医疗保障事业发展统计公报, 16 July 2026. Link链接
  12. Gong Chiping, "浙江采茶工不够,机器人来凑" [Zhejiang short of pickers], Shangguan News, 4 April 2022, citing the Zhejiang Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Link链接
  13. Teng Yitao, "茶忙季接近尾声" [As the tea season ends], Qianjiang Evening News / Tide News, 6 April 2025. Link链接
  14. National Disease Control and Prevention Administration, "发热伴血小板减少综合征防控知识问答"; Chen Kang et al., "东阳市发热伴血小板减少综合征病例特征分析", Preventive Medicine 36(1), 2024. Link链接
  15. Molly Yuan, "Mothers Chasing the Harvest Season," 2nd ed., FairTea2030 white paper, October 2026 (full reference list inside). Link链接

Add your name加入联名

The petition asks governments and tea companies to adopt five protections for the women who harvest tea. It takes one minute to sign.这份联名呼吁政府与茶企为采茶女工落实五项保障。签署只需一分钟。

Sign the petition签署联名