Eight company bosses have been detained by police in Shenzhen on charges of intentionally defaulting on 7 million yuan in wages of 1,200 workers, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The official news agency said it is the first time in China that employers who withheld wages from their workers and escaped were held responsible for being involved in economic crimes.
The arrested employers are He Hujiang of the Shenzhen Maranta Industrial Co. Ltd, and seven other bosses of various businesses, including a restaurant and an electronics company. They are suspected of intentionally refusing to pay their workers their wages between 2004 and 2005 by means of “fabricating facts, lying, frequently changing their companies' names, writing blank payment cheques, reporting false registered capital, illegally producing and using official seals, illegally transferring assets, and running away to avoid being punished, local police said.
Li Honglang, deputy director of Shenzhen Municipal Pubic Security Bureau, said the eight detained employers were also found to have intentionally delayed 41 million yuan in payment for goods to 350 suppliers.
The Shenzhen police also announced another 30 businesses that have failed to pay wages. A report of the Nanfang Daily on January 13 revealed that nine out of these 30 companies are textile and garment companies. The news report also said that when a labour inspection group commissioned by the Standing Committee of National People's Congress came to Shenzhen in November 2005 to inspect the implementation of the Labour Law and other relevant regulations in the municipality, Shenzhen labour department officials recommended to the inspection group for the first time that the National People's Congress should amend the Criminal Law to include charges against employers who escape from paying unpaid wages to their employees.
"Shenzhen hopes to establish and perfect a long-term and effective mechanism to combat such acts, starting with these 38 cases," Tan Guoxiang, vice party secretary of the Communist Party in Shenzhen, was quoted as saying in the Xinhua report.
He said Shenzhen will launch another campaign to crack down on employers who fail to pay wages as Chinese Lunar New Year approaches in order to make sure workers get paid before the holiday.
The Xinhua quoted a senior legislator as saying that China will consider adding provisions in its Criminal Law to "deliver criminal penalties to employers who delay wage payments or run away".
In a report delivered during a meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in December 2005, He Luli, vice chairman of the Committee, said the government hopes to settle all overdue pay owed by employers to workers by the end of 2007. "Social conflicts triggered by overdue salaries, especially by employers who escape and hide, are on the rise, seriously undermining social stability," He was quoted as saying.
Government statistics showed that the number of employed people in cities and towns jumped from 190 million in 1995 to 265 million in 2004. According to an NPC survey conducted with employees of 2,150 businesses in 40 cities in the country last year, 7.8 percent of the interviewed employees said they had unpaid wages amounting to 2,184 yuan per worker – an average of 3.2 months of unpaid salaries per worker over the previous year.
16 January 2006
Sources: Xinhua News Agency (15 January 2006), Nanfang Daily (13 January 2006)
The official news agency said it is the first time in China that employers who withheld wages from their workers and escaped were held responsible for being involved in economic crimes.
The arrested employers are He Hujiang of the Shenzhen Maranta Industrial Co. Ltd, and seven other bosses of various businesses, including a restaurant and an electronics company. They are suspected of intentionally refusing to pay their workers their wages between 2004 and 2005 by means of “fabricating facts, lying, frequently changing their companies' names, writing blank payment cheques, reporting false registered capital, illegally producing and using official seals, illegally transferring assets, and running away to avoid being punished, local police said.
Li Honglang, deputy director of Shenzhen Municipal Pubic Security Bureau, said the eight detained employers were also found to have intentionally delayed 41 million yuan in payment for goods to 350 suppliers.
The Shenzhen police also announced another 30 businesses that have failed to pay wages. A report of the Nanfang Daily on January 13 revealed that nine out of these 30 companies are textile and garment companies. The news report also said that when a labour inspection group commissioned by the Standing Committee of National People's Congress came to Shenzhen in November 2005 to inspect the implementation of the Labour Law and other relevant regulations in the municipality, Shenzhen labour department officials recommended to the inspection group for the first time that the National People's Congress should amend the Criminal Law to include charges against employers who escape from paying unpaid wages to their employees.
"Shenzhen hopes to establish and perfect a long-term and effective mechanism to combat such acts, starting with these 38 cases," Tan Guoxiang, vice party secretary of the Communist Party in Shenzhen, was quoted as saying in the Xinhua report.
He said Shenzhen will launch another campaign to crack down on employers who fail to pay wages as Chinese Lunar New Year approaches in order to make sure workers get paid before the holiday.
The Xinhua quoted a senior legislator as saying that China will consider adding provisions in its Criminal Law to "deliver criminal penalties to employers who delay wage payments or run away".
In a report delivered during a meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in December 2005, He Luli, vice chairman of the Committee, said the government hopes to settle all overdue pay owed by employers to workers by the end of 2007. "Social conflicts triggered by overdue salaries, especially by employers who escape and hide, are on the rise, seriously undermining social stability," He was quoted as saying.
Government statistics showed that the number of employed people in cities and towns jumped from 190 million in 1995 to 265 million in 2004. According to an NPC survey conducted with employees of 2,150 businesses in 40 cities in the country last year, 7.8 percent of the interviewed employees said they had unpaid wages amounting to 2,184 yuan per worker – an average of 3.2 months of unpaid salaries per worker over the previous year.
16 January 2006
Sources: Xinhua News Agency (15 January 2006), Nanfang Daily (13 January 2006)
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