Tougher rules by supreme court on delayed wages

Stricter legal measures will be imposed on those who delay paying salaries to laborers to protect the interests of construction workers, saying salaries must be given priority in case of a problem in production and operations.

A revised regulation on laws involving construction project contract disputes to protect workers’ interests took effect on Friday.

China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the revised regulation in early January, saying that it would not support any appointment between the contract issuers and contractors to give up or limit the latter’s priority to be paid and compensated as such appointment hurts workers’ interests.

The regulation was first implemented in January 2015, which had played an important role in regulating the Chinese construction market and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of various groups, especially migrant workers, according to the SPC.

Builders have the right to file a lawsuit if the contractor fails to fulfill their responsibility to help the builders get paid, according to the new regulation.

“The interests of migrant workers are generally obtained from the contractors, which is a thorough protection of the builders’ interests,” Shen Binti, an expert on labor law at the Beijing-based Zhong-wen Law Firm, told the Global Times on Friday.

The total number of migrant workers nationwide was 286.52 million, 18.9 percent of whom were employed in the construction industry in 2017, the SPC said.

Meanwhile, the national court heard 102,900 and 113,200 cases involving construction contract disputes, respectively, in the last two years, said the SPC.