Six owners of factories in Dongguan who attempted to flee their failing businesses without paying their workers have been apprehended by police, a senior official said yesterday.

Liu Zhigeng, Party chief of Dongguan, said police and customs officers captured the men recently as they tried to flee Guangdong province.

At the city's People's Political Consultative Conference, which began on Tuesday, deputies said they were concerned that thousands more workers could be left without pay as the recession bites and more company chiefs try to run from their responsibilities.

While the threat remains, the government is doing all it can to stop unscrupulous businessmen from abandoning their staff, Liu said.

In October, the boss of toy-maker Smart Union Group fled Dongguan, leaving thousands of workers from two factories in the city without pay.

The local government eventually covered the payroll with 24 million yuan ($3.5 million) of public money.

Such cases are far too common in Dongguan, Chen Bo, a deputy to the PPCC, said.

"The main problem is that there are no laws to punish business owners that do flee," he said at the conference.

Liu said the city government has repeatedly called for the central government to introduce legislation to deter unscrupulous bosses from fleeing failing businesses.

Local authorities are also considering setting up a fund to cover any future cases of defaulted wage payments, he said.

"We could raise money by asking for donations from big firms, by forcing them to pay deposits before opening factories in Dongguan, or by encouraging them to establish their own insurance schemes," he said.

"However, the implementation is much more difficult than the idea," Liu said.

The idea was raised several months ago, but most company bosses were unwilling to help, he said.

Some firms that have a good track record on paying workers said they should be exempted from the scheme, he said.

Also, it is important to remember that many companies are struggling at this time, so asking them to make additional payments is not going to be popular, Liu said.

It is a dilemma, but the government feels the establishment of such a fund is still the best policy, he said.

Meanwhile, in Foshan, another manufacturing city in the Pearl River Delta, 527 workers successfully claimed back their delayed salaries last month, officials said.

The boss of Foshan New Era Stationery Ltd absconded in November, owing more than 2.6 million yuan in wages, the local labor authority said.

(China Daily January 15, 2009)