On April 24, 14-year-old Wang Pan’s body was cremated. Before he died, Wang worked for a company in Foshan, in south China’s Guangdong province.

On March 5, 2016, Wang was brought to work at the same company where his mother works. Wang signed a labor contract on that day. On April 11, Wang was found in a coma around 6a.m. in his dormitory; the doctor came later and confirmed the boy’s death.

The company paid 150,000 yuan to Wang’s family in compensation, which is the amount specified in the labor contract. However, Wang’s role as a child laborer has led to a heated discussion about the compensation. According to regulations, companies are not permitted to hire child laborers. Additionally, if a child is injured or dies at work, the company has to make a lump-sum payment to the child’s family, which cannot be less than the compensation standard listed in the insurance policy.

According to the judge of this case, in order to make a fair compensation, Wang’s body had to be autopsied to determine his cause of death. However, before the autopsy could be carried out, Wang’s body had already been cremated. His family did not have a chance to request an autopsy.

Wang’s family suspects that his death had something to do with the boy working too many overtime hours. It has now been 16 days since Wang died, and apart from the compensation paid to Wang’s family, the company that hired Wang has only been fined 10,000 yuan for hiring a child laborer.