Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – More than 60 migrant workers held a public protest on 5 February outside their employer’s office because they had not been paid in months. Worried about frequent episodes of the kind, the government is thinking of setting up a fund to guarantee wages for migrants.

The migrants said the Farmers’ Daily, a government newspaper, owed more than 400,000 yuan to around 120 people who worked on its new offices. The newspaper usually defends migrants’ rights and often tells stories of migrants who have problems getting their due wages. So now the workers feel betrayed.

The migrants come from Hebei, Jiangsu, Henan and Sichuan. They finished works in 2006 and have already protested other times outside the office to call for their wages.

Zhang Hua from Henan said that as the feast of the Lunar New Year (this year it falls on 18 February) drew near, all were impatient to return home. For many migrants, this is the only time of the year that they go home to their families. “But we cannot return home without being paid,” he said.

The newspaper has defended itself by saying it paid 1.35 million yuan to the building firm Gaobeidu Construction Co. for salaries, 40,000 yuan more than agreed. But the migrants were taken on by a sub-contractor, Jiangdu Construction. Official sources said that yesterday the contractor gave the subcontractor 100,000 yuan to pay wages due. But it is not known whether the migrants have been paid.

Protests by migrants against employers who do not pay them are a frequent occurrence in China. Many firms pay migrants only once a year when they return home for the Lunar New Year. Those who are not paid do have the courage to go home without money. Unpaid workers cannot turn to the police because their status is illegal and they do not have the means to take their employers to court. Not a few kill themselves in despair.

Beijing has long been talking about setting up a public fund to ensure migrants are paid. Hu Xiaoyi, deputy employment and social security minister, said firms would have to deposit sufficient sums in this fund, which employees would then be able to have recourse to if they are not paid. Hu said this system would stipulate that each migrant has a regular contract.

But experts say migrants in big cities are often not registered and work on the black market. They say that in other States, workers who are not paid can demand their money from the customer who does not pay the construction firm when it turns out to be behind in the payment of wages.