Combining Points, Lines and Planes to Tackle the Problem of Unpaid Wages
As New Year's Day and the Spring Festival approach, incidents of migrant workers demanding unpaid wages have once again become a hot topic of social focus. Although "the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration" has been included in the Criminal Law, various wage arrears cases still frequently appear in the press, and the "chronic disease" remains. In the author's view: preventing and detecting the signs and hidden dangers of owed wages to migrant workers in advance, to warn employers that they must not owe wages; coordinating labor security supervision forces during the process, to force employers not to dare to owe wages; and opening up channels for legal intervention afterwards, to make employers unwilling to owe wages - in this way, the issue of migrant workers obtaining labor remuneration is guaranteed by all-round, full-coverage measures. This is the long-term solution for governing and eliminating wage arrears to migrant workers.
"Thank you so much. I thought our wages were gone after the boss abandoned the factory and fled, but I never expected we could get them back. This is wonderful." Guo said excitedly as he received more than 4,000 yuan in "hard-earned money" from a staff member of the Labor Supervision Bureau of Ji'an County, Jiangxi Province. Recently, Ji'an County, Jiangxi Province, concluded its first case of "refusing to pay labor remuneration." Staff members of the county's Labor Supervision Bureau distributed the owed wages of more than 110,000 yuan in a centralized manner to 30 employees of the former Yonghui Electronics Factory. The author learned that in recent years, the county has rarely seen incidents of petitioning at higher levels due to labor disputes. This is mainly because the county has consolidated the work of guaranteeing wage payment to migrant workers, worked hard on the "point, line and plane," and done a lively job of both dredging and blocking, building a "firewall" against wage arrears to migrant workers.
Do a good job at the "point" of functional departments each fulfilling their responsibilities, so that employers are not permitted to owe wages. The county issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work of Guaranteeing Wage Payment to Migrant Workers," which clearly stipulates source supervision, management of intermediate links, follow-up handling, departmental responsibilities, and linkage mechanisms for guaranteeing wage payment to migrant workers. It refined the work responsibilities of member units such as the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Public Security Bureau, Construction Bureau, Industry and Information Technology Commission, Transport Bureau, Water Resources Bureau, Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Trade Union, and Park Management Office; issued the "Implementation Measures for the Migrant Worker Wage Guarantee Deposit System in the Construction Sector of Ji'an County"; set up a special account for the "migrant worker wage guarantee deposit"; and strictly required payment of a migrant worker wage guarantee deposit at 1%-1.5% of the winning bid section price of the project. When necessary, labor and housing and construction departments may use these funds to pay migrant workers' wages, after which the housing and construction department shall order the employer to replenish them. It took the lead in incorporating the performance of migrant worker wage payment guarantee duties by relevant departments into government target assessment, building the first line of defense for preventing wage arrears.
Functional departments link with one another to form a "line," so that employers do not dare to owe wages. The Human Resources and Social Security Bureau actively coordinates and cooperates with public security, procuratorial and court departments, intensifies the investigation and handling of illegal cases and the transfer of suspected criminal cases, deterring lawbreakers and promoting the handling of cases and the protection of workers' rights and interests. At the same time, it establishes an enterprise credit system. For adverse conduct such as major labor disputes, records are entered into credit files, publicly announced and exposed on relevant construction websites (such as engineering trading center websites), and the enterprises are blacklisted, their qualification to bid for projects is canceled, and information on judgment defaulters is shared and regularly reported for public oversight, deterring wage arrears. In the past two years, the county accepted 311 labor rights protection cases, including: 84 labor security cases filed and investigated, 55 orders for correction, 4 administrative penalties, and 3 transfers to public security. These involved 1,258 workers and recovered 6.14 million yuan in economic losses for workers.
Do a lively job on the "plane" of safeguarding workers' rights and interests, so that employers are unwilling to owe wages. The county's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau strengthens its service concept. First, it serves well as a legal "advisor" to enterprises. It proactively visits employers to provide "five ones" legal services consisting mainly of a public letter, a labor security question-and-answer handbook, a labor security service card, a labor security survey questionnaire, and an on-site question-and-answer session on labor security laws and regulations. It proactively provides enterprises with services on labor laws and regulations, including methods for signing labor contracts, wage payment, participation in social insurance, and formulation of internal rules and regulations; implements the "real-name registration" system for migrant workers; answers employers' questions on labor laws and regulations on site; and effectively reduces employers' operational risks and costs of violating the law. Second, it serves well as the workers' "family." Starting from whether labor contracts between workers and units are signed in compliance with regulations, whether labor remuneration meets the minimum wage standard, and whether social insurance is paid as required, it helps migrant workers understand the responsible parties for wage payment, social insurance, and compensation for work-related injuries, so they know "for whom they work and from whom to seek money." It accepts workers' policy consultations on site, answers their doubts about the minimum wage standard and social insurance, and safeguards workers' lawful rights and interests.