China warns local officials to settle migrant pay disputes to stop possible protests

China warns locals to settle migrant pay disputes

BEIJING — China ordered local governments Friday to settle pay disputes involving migrant workers before the country’s biggest holiday — and even step in to pay workers on private construction projects if needed.

The rare urgent warning from the State Council comes as tens of millions of migrant workers return to their home villages from China’s booming cities to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which starts next weekend. The workers expect to collect pay, especially back pay, before returning home to families often expecting their financial support.

“Recently in a few places there have been mass incidents over migrant worker pay, especially in the area of construction,” said the warning, posted on the State Council’s Web site. It said officials found responsible for mass protests would be punished.

China’s Communist Party leaders fear mass protests as a major source of social instability, and government payments to prevent unrest are not uncommon.

The order tells officials to step in and pay migrant workers for government projects, and even for private construction projects, where most disputes over back pay occur.

The warning comes after two migrant workers were stabbed to death Wednesday in a fight with their employer over a pay dispute in the central province of Henan.

The two workers had been repairing a government building in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, and fought with their labor contractor after learning their monthly pay had been docked by more than 100 yuan ($14), the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Such violent labor disputes are common. Last month, state media said a migrant worker from the northern province of Hebei had to have his kidney removed after he was stabbed while trying to get 70 yuan ($10) in pay.

Tens of thousands of mass protests happen in China every year. Beijing stopped publicly reporting statistics after 87,000 “mass incidents” were marked in 2005.

China’s Lunar New Year includes the world’s biggest annual migration of people. About 210 million are expected to ride the rails during the 40-day holiday travel season.

Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.