Long journey home for salary-battle staff

More than 50 migrant workers wait to receive wages in arrears in Luoyang, Henan province, after the local courts helped to expedite their claims. Li Bo / Xinhua

As Spring Festival approaches, many migrant workers are fighting to obtain money owed to them by unscrupulous bosses who have held back their wages. Xinhua News Agency reports from Changchun.

Lyu Qingfa was making his 16th trip to Tonghua, Jilin pro-vince, in two years to demand wages held in arrears for him and his employees. On Jan 26, he boarded a full coach and departed from Changchun, capital of the Northeast China province, to travel 400 kilometers to Tonghua. During the trip he was surrounded by migrants on their annual exodus home.

With the Lunar New Year holiday fast approaching, a festive atmosphere hung in the air: all the other passengers were hauling huge trunks and gift boxes. Lyu, 60, was the only one traveling empty-handed.

He misses his family desperately. But he cannot go home knowing that 20 of his employees are still waiting for a total of 3.25 million yuan ($494,000) in wages that have been withheld for three years.

'Wait a while'

In October 2011, Lyu, a subcontractor, employed about 100 construction workers for a civil construction project in Tonghua. "The project was to be completed in two years and three months, and the contractor would pay me 7.85 million yuan in wages, according to our contract," he said.

But when the project was completed, the contractor, a subsidiary of the State-owned Beijing Shougang Construction Group, paid just 4.6 mill-ion yuan, and told Lyu to "wait a while" for the rest of the money.

The "while" has dragged into two years. Lyu paid about 80 of the workers out of his own pocket so they could either return home or find a new job. He quickly ran out of cash.

His latest trip to Tonghua was prompted by news that the head of the contractor's office in Beijing was traveling to Tonghua. "The big boss might help settle the payment in arrears," Lyu said.

He spent all of Jan 27 in the contractor's office waiting for news, only to be told the contractor needed to collect money it was owed before he could be paid.

China's construction sector is a hierarchy, and migrant workers are firmly at the bott-om. Each level of contractor gets paid by the level above, pockets some profit and pays those on the next rung down. If the cash flow is stopped by one shady contractor in the hierarchy, everyone at the lower levels suffers.