Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    THE approaching Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is a sweet time for millions of migrant workers toiling away all year long in factories or at construction sites around the country, as it is a joyful occasion for family reunions. But for some, with little money in their pockets, it is a bitter time. Their bosses have delayed paying their wages, or simply have refused to pay.

    There have been numerous reports about wage arrears, but such stories are particularly heart-gripping when Spring Festival draws near, — an otherwise festive moment will become a nightmare for these miserable people.

    On Jan. 11, 2013, about one month before Spring Festival, nearly 1,000 workers knelt down in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, to beg for their unpaid wages, which amounted to 60 million yuan (US$9.6 million), but the company that had delayed paying them splurged 1.3 million yuan inviting a few pop stars to perform at the opening ceremony of its project. This incident enraged the public, fueling outcry for the protection of workers’ interests.

    Although China criminalized malicious arrears of wage in 2011, few offenders have been convicted and punished. Therefore, the law has so far had little effect in deterring wage arrears.

    Authorities at various levels have been stepping up regulation of the issue and deliberate wage arrears have been effectively curbed in some places, but the offense is far from being contained. Some recent cases even exhibited a deterioration of the situation.

    On Jan. 19, 2015, a 14-year-old girl jumped to her death from the 16th floor of a building under construction in Jizhou, Hebei Province. According to media reports, she killed herself in an attempt to get unpaid wages for her father.

    Of course, in reality, there are complex causes leading to wage arrears. One of the major causes is the payment of project-related debts, or the money the project owner has to pay to the project contractors for the construction work or material purchases. It is a regular practice in China that a project, whether a small one like an apartment building or a large one like a high-speed railway, will be subcontracted many times until it is actually executed by a group of low-paid, unprotected migrant workers. Once something goes wrong, a complicated debt chain will form, making it very difficult for authorities or courts to settle the disputes.

    To make matters worse, these uneducated workers, knowing little about their own rights and interests and badly wanting a job, often start work without signing a labor contract. This puts them at a disadvantage in the event of wage disputes. In addition, their lack of legal knowledge and money usually prevents them from resorting to lawsuits when encountering disputes.

    The recent economic slowdown has resulted in the rise of wage arrears cases. The labor watchdog in Anhui Province reported a 14 percent increase in the total amount of unpaid wages in 2014. Nationwide, wage arrears cases are on the rise and are spreading from previously rampantly affected sectors such as construction to other areas, chiefly manufacturing. Private factories are perhaps the worst sector for these crimes. During the first 11 months of 2014, in Zhejiang, a province with flourishing private economy, wage arrears cases in manufacturing accounted for 49.5 percent of the total, while those in construction accounted for 43 percent.

    An increasing number of wage arrears cases have been caused by bankruptcy or financial strain.

    To cure the epidemic, comprehensive measures and joint efforts are called for.

    The most important measure should be the effective implementation of the existing laws and elaboration on the details to make them more enforceable. More legislation is needed, too. For example, it should be a legal obligation for the employer to sign a labor contract with every employee, otherwise they should be held fully responsible for any legal consequences in the event of such cases.

    Finally, workers should receive legal education and authorities should provide them with adequate legal assistance.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)