The "Regulations on Guaranteeing the Payment of Migrant Workers' Wages" have been implemented for one year.

What are the "notes"?

  The new rules are being "finely polished" to eradicate wage arrears

  Read the tips

  The eradication of wage arrears has always been an unremitting issue. The Regulations on Guaranteeing the Payment of Migrant Workers' Wages, which came into effect on May 1, 2020, will be implemented for one year on May 1 this year.

In the past year, how good was the "Regulations" in safeguarding the legal rights and interests of migrant workers?

How effective is it?

What other "notes" exist?

  As the May 1st International Labor Day approaches, the protection of the rights and interests of migrant workers has once again attracted attention.

In recent years, the relevant parties have been unremittingly addressing the issue of "eradicating wage arrears".

The Regulations on Guaranteeing the Payment of Migrant Workers’ Wages, which came into effect on May 1, 2020, will be implemented for one year on May 1 this year.

In the past year, how good was the "Regulations" in safeguarding the legal rights and interests of migrant workers?

How effective is it?

What other "notes" exist?

  Change the construction unit to manage the wage payment of migrant workers

  On January 4, 2021, the Labor Security Supervision Brigade of Xiapu County, Ningde City, Fujian Province, during the inspection of an engineering construction project within its jurisdiction, discovered that the construction unit Xiapu Real Estate Co., Ltd. did not pay the wages of migrant workers for the project in full and in accordance with the agreement. The labor costs in the project funds allocated by the account violated the provisions of Article 24 Paragraph 2 and Article 29 Paragraph 1 of the "Regulations" concerning labor cost allocation.

On January 27, 2021, the Xiapu County Human Resources and Social Security Bureau issued an administrative penalty decision to the construction unit in accordance with the "Regulations", ordered the project to stop work, and issued a "ticket" of 100,000 yuan.

  The basis for the issuance of the “ticket” is Article 57 of the Regulations-in any of the following circumstances, the human resources and social security administrative department and the relevant industry engineering construction department shall order corrections within a time limit according to their duties; If corrections are made, the project shall be ordered to stop work, and a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan shall be imposed: (1) the construction unit fails to provide guarantee for the payment of the project funds according to law; (2) the construction unit fails to pay the special wage account for migrant workers in full and in time as agreed Appropriate labor costs in the project funds; (3) The construction unit or the general construction contractor refuses to provide or fails to provide the relevant information about the project construction contract and the special account for the wages of migrant workers.

  The reporter found that since the "Regulations" came into effect on May 1 last year, many places have issued similar fines.

  Take the Central District of Neijiang City, Sichuan Province as an example. In the past year, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of this district has accepted and settled more than 100 cases of migrant workers' wages arrears, involving more than 3,000 migrant workers, and recovered more than 37 million yuan in wages arrears.

Relevant staff of the District Human Resources and Social Affairs Bureau said that this achievement has benefited from the support and "understanding" of the "Regulations."

  Lawyer Yang Jun, a partner of Dacheng Law Firm’s Xi’an branch, said that the “Regulations” has brought at least two breakthroughs to the construction industry in the “hardest-hit areas” of wage arrears. It is the separation of labor costs and engineering funds."

  "In the traditional practice, the construction unit is only responsible for paying the project cost to the general contractor and subcontractor. As for how the wages of migrant workers are allocated in the project payment, how to pay is unchanged. Now, the "Regulations" includes the construction unit in the wages. As the payment entity, the construction unit must not only pay migrant workers' wages on time and in full, but also supervise the implementation of the payment of migrant workers' wages by the general contractor and subcontractor. If the wages of migrant workers are in arrears due to the construction unit, they will be ordered lightly Work suspension and fines; the most important thing is to impose administrative penalties on the construction unit and its responsible person, which affects the construction unit's credit, qualifications and the salary and promotion of its responsible person. All these have forced the construction unit to pay more attention to the issue of migrant workers' wages. "Yang Jun said.

  A written checklist is required to regulate the payment of migrant workers’ wages

  Not long ago, Beijing Xicheng Court conducted a systematic review of cases involving migrant workers’ wages arrears in the past 7 years and found that disputes involving migrant workers’ wages arrears were mainly concentrated in labor-intensive industries such as construction engineering, processing and manufacturing. With the development, such disputes have spread to small and micro industries such as catering, education, and entertainment.

  “Migrant workers usually introduce their work to each other through workers, most of them are fellow villagers, relatives and friends, forming a certain number of people to'huddle up'. Most of the migrant workers themselves only understand and contact the end contractor, lack of legal knowledge, weak awareness of evidence retention, and relatively more rights protection. Blindly.” According to Wang Yuantian, vice president of the Beijing Xicheng Court, “the irregularity of wage payment is mainly manifested in non-sign labor contracts, and payment standards, time, and methods are mostly verbally agreed.” Therefore, standardizing wage payment behavior is to control arrears of peasants. The source of the wage problem.

  In June 2020, Zhang joined a construction company to engage in woodworking work.

In September of the same year, Zhang sued the construction company as the defendant to the court, demanding a salary of 7,200 yuan for the period from June 7 to June 30, 2020, at a rate of 300 yuan per day.

During the trial, the construction company stated that the wage payment standard should be calculated based on the actual number of square meters of work completed, rather than on a daily basis. The wages have been settled and paid on the basis of the team and did not agree to pay the wages to Zhang himself.

  The court found that the two parties did not sign the labor contract, and the construction company was unable to submit the special agreement on the method of salary calculation and payment period and the payment vouchers that the two parties had already issued the salary to Zhang.

In the end, the court ruled that a construction company should pay Zhang a salary of 7,200 yuan based on the number of days of attendance recorded on the time sheet of the construction workers confirmed by both parties and according to the salary payment standard advocated by Zhang.

  The judge who heard the case believed that the "Regulations" clearly stipulated that employers should pay wages in full in accordance with the wage payment cycle and specific payment dates stipulated in a written agreement with migrant workers or in accordance with the rules and regulations established in accordance with the law.

In the past, employers who paid wages to migrant workers did not compile a wage ledger or provide a wage list. The Regulations require the employer to compile a written wage payment ledger in accordance with the wage payment cycle and keep it for at least 3 years.

When paying wages, a wage list shall be provided.

  "This reminds the employer to make a written agreement on the wage payment standard and cycle in advance during the wage payment process, and at the same time prepare a wage payment account and keep the payment record, otherwise it will bear the legal consequences of not being able to provide evidence." Wang Yuantian said.

  Prevent malicious collusion of fictitious debt identity fraud

  Over the past year, the "Regulations on Guaranteeing the Payment of Migrant Workers' Wages" have been quite effective in protecting the rights and interests of migrant workers' wages, but at the same time, the rise of false lawsuits in the labor sector cannot be ignored.

According to statistics from the Supreme Law, from 2015 to 2020, the incidence of false lawsuits involving labor contracts and recourse to labor compensation disputes has increased rapidly every year.

  According to Wang Yuantian, false litigation "often manifests itself in malicious collusion and fictitious debts based on close relationship or affiliated companies and other common interests; "contractors" use migrant workers to raise labor remuneration, falsify wage accounts, and negotiate more than contractually agreed. The two parties have no substantive civil rights disputes, submit false evidence, and even take the initiative to quickly reach mediation and require the court to issue a mediation statement."

  A case shows that more than 100 workers including Li sue a construction company for labor fees of varying amounts.

During the trial, the judge doubted the authenticity of the arrears of labor fees, so he notified Li and others to go to court one by one to verify. However, the verification process was not smooth. Some people refused to answer the phone, avoided seeing them, and some were hesitant and vague.

At the same time, the construction company had doubts about the number of people in arrears and the high amount, and reported to the public security organs.

After investigation by the public security organs, the case was that Li borrowed some migrant workers’ ID cards in an attempt to make the construction company assume joint and several liability for payment in the name of owing labor fees to the workers.

In the end, Li and others were held criminally responsible for falsifying evidence and false litigation, which constituted a crime.

  Through the above cases, the judge also reminded and recommended migrant workers to protect their rights in accordance with the law to avoid extreme behaviors; to protect their rights in good faith and to prevent false litigation.

  Reporter Landhua