Jiangsu： Ensure that cases of unpaid wages are dynamically cleared before the Spring Festival.
Four departments in Jiangsu held a news briefing to ensure the payment of wages for migrant workers. People’s Network Ma Xiaobo photo
People’s Daily Online, Nanjing, January 14 (Ma Xiaobo) With the Spring Festival approaching in 2021, how to ensure the wage payment of migrant workers has become a hot topic again. On January 14th, Jiangsu Provincial Court, Provincial Procuratorate, Provincial Public Security Department, Provincial People’s Social Welfare Department and other four departments jointly held a news briefing to ensure the payment of wages for migrant workers, and released a number of typical cases to introduce relevant measures taken by various departments to protect the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers.
People’s Daily learned that since the winter special campaign to eradicate unpaid wages, the province’s special campaign has investigated and inspected 59,400 employers and paid 133 million yuan for 21,600 migrant workers. As the Spring Festival approaches, the courts in the province will further strengthen the enforcement of the trial of unpaid wages to ensure that the cases of unpaid wages are dynamically cleared and all the execution funds are paid before the Spring Festival.
Long-term arrears of wages, the person in charge of the enterprise was sentenced.
Since 2014, Zhu, the head of an enterprise, has set up two companies in Gaoyou and Yangzhou. Later, due to management problems, he owed 13 employees a total salary of more than 540,000 yuan. In February 2021, in order to avoid paying wages, Zhu fled to other places to hide. After receiving a joint complaint, Gaoyou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau issued the Instruction for Correction of Labor Security Supervision Time Limit on February 19, 2021, ordering Zhu to pay the arrears of wages within 3 days, and sending a text message to Zhu to go to the Labor Security Supervision Brigade of the bureau for investigation and handling. On March 15th of the same year, Zhu, who refused to cooperate, was arrested and brought to justice. He truthfully confessed the main criminal facts.
Gaoyou City People’s Court held that Zhu, as the directly responsible person in charge of the company and the operator of individual merchants, evaded the payment of labor remuneration by hiding, and the amount was large, but he still refused to pay after being ordered by the relevant government departments, which constituted a crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration. After Zhu was brought to justice, he truthfully confessed the main criminal facts and could be given a lighter punishment according to law. Accordingly, he was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months in prison and fined for refusing to pay labor remuneration.
How can migrant workers use legal weapons to effectively defend their legitimate rights and interests when they encounter the problem of unpaid wages? At the meeting, Chen Liang, vice president of the Fourth People’s Court of Jiangsu Province, introduced that the courts in Jiangsu Province have effectively implemented the working mechanism of "quick establishment, quick trial, quick settlement and quick execution" in cases of unpaid wages, and established a green channel for the whole process of filing, trial and execution of cases involving migrant workers. In addition, the Jiangsu provincial court set up a special window for migrant workers with financial difficulties to file a case for people’s livelihood, and took the initiative to reduce or postpone legal fees and assist in applying for legal aid.
People’s Daily learned that in 2021, courts in Jiangsu Province concluded more than 30,000 civil cases of unpaid wages. Since the launch of the winter special campaign, the provincial courts have concluded 5745 civil cases of unpaid wages. For the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration. On the one hand, the courts in the province have always maintained a high-pressure situation of cracking down on crimes of refusing to pay labor remuneration, and resolutely and severely punished criminals with bad criminal circumstances and serious consequences, effectively deterring the crime of unpaid wages. In 2021, there were 60 cases of refusing to pay labor remuneration, and 62 people were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment and criminal detention. On the other hand, the provincial courts insisted on paying equal attention to cracking down on crimes and chasing after them, actively used the lenient system of pleading guilty and recognizing punishment, and safeguarded the rights and interests of workers in various ways, and recovered and repaid wages of more than 11.54 million yuan before judgment.
If the enterprise is poorly managed, the procuratorate will promote the implementation of reconciliation.
Wage arrears are not a situation in which enterprise managers subjectively evade paying migrant workers’ wages. In 2021, the procuratorate of Liuhe District, Nanjing found a clue of a dispute between migrant workers and a clothing company to pursue labor remuneration during the special campaign to eradicate wage arrears.
Thirty-two farmers, including Zhao, worked odd jobs in local market town clothing enterprises. The company owed Zhao and others more than 200,000 yuan in labor remuneration from May to July 2021 due to poor management. After accepting the case, the procuratorate found that the clothing company failed to pay off other large debts except the wages of 32 migrant workers involved in the case due to poor management. The procuratorate of Liuhe District believes that workers have the right to get remuneration, and the employer should pay the remuneration in full, and shall not deduct or delay the wages of workers without reason. On October 25, 2021, the procuratorate supported 32 migrant workers to file a lawsuit in Liuhe District Court.
In the course of litigation, both parties reached a mediation agreement, and the court made a civil mediation. After that, the company was still unable to repay. Liuhe District Procuratorate continued to support migrant workers to participate in the implementation of the settlement work. With the joint efforts of the procuratorate and the court, Zhao and other employees reached an implementation settlement agreement with the company in stages. On December 26, 2021, the company paid the first payment according to the agreement.
People’s Daily learned that this case was selected into the Catalogue of Typical Cases of Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorial Organs’ Safeguarding the Wage Payment of Migrant Workers. According to the relevant person in charge of the prosecution, this case is typical in the process of helping migrant workers to ask for wages, which can not only support them to file a lawsuit with the people’s court, but also support them to apply to the people’s court for enforcement, and strive to achieve the case. While safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers, we should fully consider the practical difficulties of private enterprises, promote litigation mediation and execution reconciliation, and serve to ensure the healthy development of private enterprises.
"On the one hand, Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate punishes malicious crimes of unpaid wages in accordance with the law and resolutely safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers. On the other hand, it actively performs its civil administrative procuratorial function and fully supports the solution of migrant workers’ wage problems. At the same time, it strengthens internal and external cooperation and forms a joint effort." Zhou Hexing, director of the Sixth Procuratorial Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate, said that in 2021, the procuratorial organs in the province handled a total of 4,194 cases involving migrant workers’ wages, helping to recover about 187 million yuan in labor remuneration. Among them, 58 criminal prosecutions were filed, 3,748 civil support prosecutions were filed, and 27 procuratorial suggestions were issued to administrative organs.
"The cases that reached the repayment agreement were basically cleared before the Spring Festival"
"In 2021, the province’s public security organs successively organized a special campaign to deepen the crackdown on forced intellectual disabilities and malicious unpaid wages, as well as a 100-day attack on crimes of refusing to pay labor remuneration. A total of 195 cases of refusing to pay labor remuneration were filed for investigation, including 4 key cases supervised by the Ministry of Public Security, 13 cases supervised by provincial offices, and 123 suspects were arrested." Li Hongzhou, deputy head of the Public Security Corps of the Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department and detachment leader of the patrol special police detachment, said, here, we are telling those "black-hearted bosses" who refuse to pay their labor remuneration and escape, not to have any luck, and to surrender to the public security organs as soon as possible and strive for leniency. At the same time, it also appeals to the broad masses of people to complain and report to the public security organs and labor inspection departments in time when they encounter related problems, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests according to law.
At present, there are only about two weeks before the Spring Festival, and the payment of wages for migrant workers has entered a critical stage. In the next step, how can we fight the battle against wage arrears in winter, so that migrant workers who have worked hard for one year can get their wages and return home for the New Year? Zhang Zhiling, deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group for the Eradication of Wage Arrears for Migrant Workers in Jiangsu Province and director of the Labor and Social Security Supervision Bureau of the Provincial People’s Social Welfare Department, said that Jiangsu will do its best to clear the arrears before the Spring Festival, pay close attention to the verified problem of migrant workers’ wages, implement special personnel to track them, and reverse the wage payment nodes to urge the unpaid subjects to pay off as soon as possible. "For cases that only pay part of their wages or reach a repayment agreement, we will pay close attention to the implementation and ensure that they are basically cleared before the Spring Festival."
In addition, Jiangsu will continue to investigate and crack down on wage arrears. Strictly implement the mechanism of first asking, first handling and quick checking, and comprehensively improve the quality and efficiency of the national wage clue reflection platform and the provincial reporting and complaint platform to meet the needs of labor rights protection. Actively promote the "double assignment" between the human and social departments and the competent departments of wage arrears cases, strengthen departmental cooperation, and jointly handle them quickly to promote the rapid resolution of wage arrears. We will intensify the joint punishment of administrative and judicial linkage and unpaid wages and dishonesty, and punish malicious unpaid wages according to law. To take illegal means to ask for wages of migrant workers or to ask for project funds in the name of arrears of wages of migrant workers, timely notify the public security organs to deal with them according to law.
"At present, the Office of the Provincial Leading Group has deployed capable personnel, organized a supervision team to conduct full coverage and whole-process inspection of the work of eradicating wage arrears in 13 districts and cities, and urged the implementation of the territorial responsibility of eradicating wage arrears and the main responsibility of wage payment. Starting next week, we will implement a daily scheduling system to inform the progress of various places in time to ensure the implementation of work tasks. Give full play to the role of the "baton" of special assessment, innovate assessment methods, conduct pressure step by step, and compact responsibilities layer by layer. " Zhang Zhiling said that to improve the long-term mechanism for the treatment of unpaid wages, we should also strengthen the construction of a long-term mechanism for the protection of wage payment, and further standardize the implementation rules of special wage accounts for migrant workers, wage deposits, joint punishment for unpaid wages and dishonesty, and tighten the "cage" of the system for preventing and treating owed wages.
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