A national campaign has been launched to help migrant workers
win back their overdue wages so they can head home happy for Spring
Festival.
The drive was launched by the All-China Federation of Trade
Unions (ACFTU),
the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and the Ministry of
Construction.
However, Sun Chunlan, vice president of ACFTU, warned yesterday
that this problem is widespread in the construction, catering and
manufacturing industries, and cannot be solved by just one
campaign.
There are about 130 million migrant workers nationwide who are
making "historic contributions" to the country's social and
economic progress, but who still do not have their rights
protected, Sun said.
"It's our responsibility to protect their rights," she said,
urging trade unions at all levels to work closely with local
governments to retrieve delayed payments for workers.
In Beijing, migrant workers are expected to get 1.8 billion yuan
(US$222 million) in defaulted wages by the end of this month,
according to Zhang Jianmin, vice president of the Beijing
Federation of Trade Unions.
He said Beijing authorities have helped workers get back about 3
billion yuan (US$370 million) in the past three years. About 112
construction companies have been blacklisted and 10 driven out of
the capital because of delayed payments.
"We will be strict on this malicious practice," Zhang
reiterated.
The Beijing federation will also help migrant workers buy train
tickets so that they do not have to queue for hours in ticket
offices.
In Henan, a central China province that exports about 10 million
migrant workers, a 3-month campaign to retrieve overdue wages
started last October, and so far has won back 154.7 million yuan
(US$19 million) for 290,000 migrant workers.
In Quanzhou, east China's Fujian Province, about 1.1 million
migrant workers joined the local federation of trade unions,
accounting for 90.2 percent of the city's total migrant workforce.
The federation has set up hotlines on wage disputes, and provides
free legal services to them.
A Spring Festival party will be held in a theater on Lunar New
Year's Eve for migrant workers who do not go home. They can also
visit scenic spots in Quanzhou for free.
In Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, migrant workers who
are not paid by Spring Festival will get free train tickets back
home from the local trade union federation. By the end of last
month, 342 migrant workers had got tickets and daily necessities
worth 34,000 yuan (US$ 4,200).
(China Daily January 6, 2006)