The Guangzhou labor authority received 54 complaints over unpaid wages involving 9 million (US$1.08 million) yuan and 4,485 workers in the first week it opened a hot line service.

About 80 percent of the complaints were from the construction field, the Guangzhou Daily reported Thursday.

The Guangzhou Daily Press Group received 84 complains since it opened a hotline last week.

A contractor for a project at a Guangzhou university failed to pay several million yuan to workers, preventing them from returning home for family reunions.

Guangzhou Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau opened a complaints hotline on Jan. 20 to help migrant workers to get their wages in time for the Spring Festival. The authority had recovered 1.5 million yuan from employers who had violated wages rules.

The problem of unpaid wages is still prevalent especially with the Spring Festival approaching.

Zhu Chuangge, a migrant worker from Yueyang City in Hunan Province, suffered a fractured spine in a separate incident after he demanded his wages from his employer in Fangcun District on Jan 30.

Zhu and the other employees were paid a total of 1.74 million yuan but were still owed a total of 1 million yuan which their employer said was owed by another company that had not paid in full for work done by Zhu's company.

Zhu and another 16 workers went to this company, demanding their unpaid wages but were attacked and beaten by security guards, seriously injuring Zhu.

Doctors said Zhu would need at least six months to recover from his injuries.

Zhu had three children at home, waiting for him to pay education fees.

Some workers took extreme action to get their wages by blocking traffic in Haizhu District on Jan. 24 and 26.

Three women climbed a 50-meter crane at a construction site on Wednesday to demand their wages.

After a two-hour standoff, they were persuaded to come down. The city's labor authority is helping them get their pay.

Government statistics showed that various departments in Guangdong had helped migrant construction workers obtain nearly 1 billion yuan in back wages last year. The government is trying to ensure the remaining 100 million in unpaid wages is paid before the Lunar New Year.

(Shenzhen Daily February 4, 2005)