国家应对雇主拖欠工人工资

With the Spring Festival approaching, the Chinese government has pledged to crack down on the malicious nonpayment of wages to protect workers' rights and maintain social stability.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security says it has introduced a measure to release a detailed judicial interpretation of criminal acts related to the intentional nonpayment of wages and implement procedures to deal with them.

Ding Baoyong, a lawyer in central China's Henan Province, says the move is a crucial step to help resolve the problem.

"Currently, we have very vague definition of crime concerning wage defaults. There is a lack of implementation standards, and it is difficult to enforce the policies. For example, it is unclear how labor departments and police authorities should cooperate with each other in handling such cases. There is no specific definition as to the amount of unpaid wages by employers that would constitute a 'criminal act'."

In February, the government passed an amendment to the Criminal Law, stipulating that the malicious nonpayment of wages was a crime. Employers who intentionally withheld salaries can now face up to seven years in jail.

However, despite these amendments, the intentional nonpayment of wages still seems to be prevalent.

A recent survey indicates that 41.2 percent of construction workers have at some point experienced salary delays - sometimes indefinitely.

Ding Baoyong says migrant workers often resort to arbitration instead of going to court because of vague definitions of wage default-related crimes. The lacking of clear implementation standards has also failed to deter unscrupulous employers.

Huang Mingui, a migrant worker from Anhui, has worked on construction sites in Beijing for 10 years.

"Most of us are part-time workers and have not signed a contract with our employers, so our interests often cannot be protected."

Huang says he is however still confident that making the intentional nonpayment of wages a crime will help resolve the problem.

"Certainly, there will be much less such cases. When it is made a crime, employers will be less likely to do it."

Despite the government's increased efforts to stop the intentional nonpayment of wages, Ding says there is still a long way to go before the problem can be eradicated.

For CRI, I'm Li Ningjing.