Wary of ‘vicious’ events, China makes migrant worker arrears a priority

Social harmony takes centre stage after high-profile killings, and China’s cabinet says the unpaid salaries of migrant labourers require political action

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China’s migrant workers accounted for about 21 per cent of the population last year. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:30pm, 20 Nov 2024

As the year winds down, Beijing is stepping up efforts to tackle delayed payments for migrant workers and protect the interests of the nation’s grass-roots workforce, aiming to maintain social stability in turbulent economic times.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, held a meeting on Tuesday to advance an action plan aimed at addressing arrears in the wages of migrant workers after a three-month dedicated campaign kicked off on November 1.

“[We] need to resolutely take up the political responsibility of managing wage arrears and consider the settlement of the issue an extremely important livelihood task,” said a post-meeting statement.

The stepped-up efforts came as China, which has about 300 million migrant workers, is facing mounting pressure on employment and wages at a time when the world’s second-largest economy is being dragged by a property crisis, local government debt woes and weak confidence. Two high-profile mass killings this month have also highlighted the importance of social stability.

“The objective is to firmly prevent any major mass incidents or vicious extreme events triggered by wage arrears, to safeguard the basic livelihood of the people, and to maintain social harmony and stability,” the campaign notice stated.

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According to the notice, construction projects by government and state-owned enterprises are considered primary areas of focus in wage-arrear issues. And officials have been authorised to use “non-routine methods” to resolve all verified cases before the Lunar New Year, which falls on January 29.