Just a few weeks after a female migrant worker died in Shanxi province after her hair was trampled upon by police, a 13-year-old girl jumped off the 16th floor of a building under construction in Jizhou, Hebei province; both tragedies happened when migrant workers met difficulties in collecting their wages for the year. Comments:
The criminal code clearly states that those refusing to pay workers' wages face charges and could spend up to seven years in prison. Yet many migrant workers still find it difficult to get their wages. The key problem lies in local courts protecting businesspeople at the request of local authorities, because they pay large amounts of tax. A good law on paper means nothing.
Daily Business, Jan 20
Many enterprises complain that local governments or bigger companies refuse to honor debts to them, which in turn makes it difficult for them to pay workers' wages. It is like a biological food chain, in which the migrant workers stand helplessly at the bottom. A credit system of the whole society is needed to change this.
Legal Daily, Jan 20
Theoretically, local authorities are required by law to help workers get their wages but in reality they are always passing the buck. Our journalists once followed a group of migrant workers in Liaoning province, and witnessed how they were "kicked like footballs" from one government agency to another. Their last hope lies in media reports and that's why they sometimes jump off buildings.
Henan Daily, Jan 20
