The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court has finally been
able to secure the 1.1 million yuan (US$135,000) in back wages that
has been owed to a group of migrant workers for six years.
Twenty-four of the workers appeared in court on Thursday to receive
the long-awaited payment.
Another 180 workers, who were in Chengde and Langfang in north
China's Hebei
Province, will get their money ahead of Spring Festival, which
falls on February 9 next year.
Yesterday's delayed salary distribution followed a judgment
earlier this year, when the court ruled that the Beijing Xide Food
Company had to pay 1.1 million yuan (US$135,000) to the Beijing
Fuhuida Construction Engineering Company, which had employed the
migrant workers.
The court found at trial that Xide Food had signed a contract in
November 1997, agreeing to pay Fuhuida Construction for building a
factory and related facilities. With the completion of the project,
Xide Food owed Fuhuida Construction a total of 1.2 million yuan
(US$139,000), according to the Beijing News.
But the food company claimed it did not have the funds to pay,
requiring Fuhuida Construction to request the court to enforce its
order.
The court sold some of the food company's real estate assets at
auction and the money is being used to pay the workers' wages.
"It is the court and the law that helped us," Xue Shihai, one of
the plaintiffs, said at the courthouse on Thursday. "Not being paid
for my work has been a big weight on my heart for the past six
years."
"In 1998, when we worked at the Xide Food Company, we did not
even have money for meals and could not pay for a railway ticket
back to our hometowns," Xue said.
(China Daily, China.org.cn December 10, 2004)
