Chinese Vice Premier Zeng
Peiyan Thursday advocated building and improving a long-term
work mechanism to guarantee migrant workers are paid on time and
pledged to intensify efforts of retrieving defaulted construction
funds for construction companies from local governments.
In his speech at a forum held?in Beijing?by the State
Council, or the central Chinese government, Zeng said a total of
33.1 billion? yuan (about US$4 billion) of salary in arrears
has been retrieved and given back to migrant workers so far,
98.4? percent of the total defaulted amount.
Zeng said that construction companies could not default workers'
salaries in the future, and governments at all levels should
intensify supervision of the construction market.
"Construction companies found to default workers' salaries in
the future will have poor credit records, will have a hard time to
get market entrance approval next time and will face legal
responsibility," Zeng said.
Zeng said after the goal of helping migrant workers get back pay
was achieved, the government should help construction companies get
construction funds owed to them by local governments. The budgets
for local governments will be adjusted to help them pay back
defaulted construction funds.
He said fixed assets investment will be cooled down in 2005,
which will help prevent future salary defaults.
China has 140 million migrant workers. A large proportion of
them are working in the construction sector.
In October 2003, Premier Wen Jiabao
helped Xiong Deming, a 42-year-old country woman from an outlying
village of Chongqing? Municipality, retrieve her husband's
defaulted salary after she made a complaint while Wen was
conducting a surprise inspection of Xiong's Longquan Village of
Yunyang Country, Chongqing.
Since then, a year-long campaign was launched in China to help
migrant workers regain their wages in arrears.
?
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2005)