The city government has set aside 6 million yuan (US$739,827) to reward companies with a good record of workplace safety, the municipal labor and social security bureau told a news conference yesterday.

The reward will go to 300 companies with low workplace injury rates in 2005. The companies should have purchased workplace injury insurance for their employees, and possessed a workplace injury rate of lower than 1 per 1,000 in that year.

The reward for each company ranges from 10,000 to 30,000 yuan, with the highest sum going to the 100 companies that did not report workplace injuries in 2005. Companies can apply for the reward with the labor and social security bureau.

Companies with a good safety record are eligible to pay lower premiums in the near future, said Du Bin, vice director of the social insurance fund management center. But he did not elaborate on how much lower the premiums would be.

Shenzhen now has three workplace injury insurance rates: 0.5 percent of the workers' salaries for safer industries like the IT companies, 1 percent for more dangerous industries like manufacturing firms, and 1.5 percent for the most dangerous industries such as mining.

The labor bureau plans to make the rates flexible and lower the premiums for companies with good safety records. "We hope the plan to be implemented early next year," said Du.

A total of 6.32 million workers in Shenzhen were insured against workplace injuries as of May 2006, accounting for 8 percent of the national total.

Editor: Yan