CHONGQING: About 500 migrant workers who finished construction jobs here are still hanging around, sleeping on frigid concrete floors and eating plain rice in this wintry city - waiting to get paid.

Huddled for 10 days in cheap rented rooms, the cash-strapped workers from neighboring Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces first have to survive.

"I don't know how to tell the truth to my family," the local Chongqing Evening News quoted one of the workers, Chen Shiyun, as saying. He said his 89-year-old mother and 8-year-old son are waiting for him to bring money back.

They are still waiting for four months' salaries.

The migrants began to work for a high-voltage wiring project in early January, erecting steel towers and installing wires on Wuling Mountain among other high mountains in the local Qianjiang district.

Their jobs were completed in mid-November.

But the labor contractor, surnamed Jiang, reportedly disappeared on Nov 25 with 5 million yuan that was meant to pay the 500 workers, one of the construction squad heads told the newspaper.

A local lawyer said Jiang does not represent any legitimate subcontractor and is not eligible to recruit construction workers.

Though the lead construction company gave each of the workers 100 yuan to cover their temporary living expenses on Dec 3, survival remains a problem as most of them ran out money on Tuesday.

The newspaper reported 28 migrant workers clustering in two small rooms about 30 sq m in a village in Qianjiang district - all sleeping on bamboo mats and curling under thin quilts.

"We didn't bring any clothes or bedding to Chongqing for the winter because we thought our wages would be paid in November and we would be back home by now," the newspaper quoted worker Guan Hongyun as saying.

A police investigation is under way and the local government is stepping in to help claim the workers' wages.

Yesterday, a local pro-labor rights lawyer, who has been helping migrant workers since 1996, told China Daily that since the subcontractor was unqualified, the wages can be sought from the lead construction company through arbitration if needed.

"Quite often we see construction jobs are further subcontracted out, but the delayed payment of basic salaries is unusual in Chongqing," said lawyer Zhou Litai.

Cases to claim compensation for injury or unpaid perks are more common.

Workers rights are seen to have improved significantly since the central government passed a series of policies in 2005, such as requiring contractors to set up a guarantee fund.

(China Daily 12/10/2009 page5)