By Chen Yi
"I finally get the 40,000 yuan!" Master Pu, a migrant worker of Sichuan Province who came to Shanghai, could not help feeling excited. He came from his hometown to fetch the arrears. His two children in high schools plus a 98-year-old elder need him. Now, he can have a happy new year.
On the afternoon of January 12, 7 migrant workers received a total of 102,320 yuan in arrears at the ceremony of paying for migrant workers' arrears held by the labor and personnel dispute mediation center of Ouyang Road Sub-district. On the same day, two migrant workers specially received their wages in arrears, while the other five migrant workers in other places then also got the remittances of all their wage arrears on the same day. After completing the relevant procedures, their lawyers made mobile-phone video calls to let the migrant workers follow up the payment process of wages in time. On the other end of the phone came the happy laughter.
According to the sub-district staff, it was the second ceremony for the payment of wages owed to migrant workers. As early as the eve of new year's day, the first batch of 6 migrant workers has received a total of 130,795 yuan wage arrears. So far, more than 230,000 wage arrears of all 13 migrant workers involved in the dispute have been paid out.
From the single line investigation to the joint mediation
In late November last year, the labor relations coordination team of Ouyang Road Sub-district sorted out the problem of migrant workers' wage arrears in enterprises and construction sites within its jurisdiction one by one, and found that a construction unit was in arrears with workers' wages. According to the requirements of the-city-and-district-level multi-department guarantee mechanism, the sub-district immediately launched the large-scale mediation working mechanism. The Ouyang Road Sub-district Judicial Office, the labor relations coordination team of the service office, the autonomous office and other departments built the "Nov. 24 Migrant Workers' Arrears Dispute Resolution" working team to conduct a special investigation on the case. In the investigation, it was found that the construction unit owed 13 workers' wages in total, and the amount of wages owed was 233,115 yuan. This sum of money should have been paid by the general contractor as a part of the project sum to the subcontractor, and then the subcontractor settled the wages to the workers. However, due to the contract dispute between the general contractor and the subcontractor, the general contractor seized part of the project sum, and the subcontractor was unable to pay the workers' wages. These 13 workers are all migrant workers from other places. As the new year is approaching, they are looking forward to going home with a year's hard money.
On November 27, after clarifying the legal relationship among the general contracting company, the sub-contracting company and the migrant workers, Ouyang Road Sub-district "11.24 Migrant Workers' Wage Arrears Dispute Resolution" Working Team interviewed representatives of the general contracting company and urged them to pay all the migrant workers' wages unconditionally as soon as possible. Under the active guidance of the sub-district, the general contractor expressed its willingness to pay the migrant workers, but pointed out that there was no labor relationship or other direct legal relationship between the general contractor and the migrant workers, and direct payment of wages would cause a problem of financial compliance. After several rounds of mediation, the three parties reached a consensus to determine the mediation plan. Then, according to the mediation plan, the sub-district coordinated the subcontracting company to issue a letter of entrustment, and entrusted the general contractor to pay the wages to the migrant workers directly in the name of the subcontracting company. Under the premise of ensuring the financial compliance of the general contractor, the legitimate rights and interests of the migrant workers were protected.
According to Ouyang Road Sub-district staff, the construction contract of the project was signed in 2019, so it was impossible to trace and regulate the behavior of the construction party in accordance with the regulations on guaranteeing the payment of migrant workers' wages, which was implemented on May 1, 2020. After a dispute of migrant workers’ wage arrears occurs, it often takes a long time get labor arbitrations and court prosecutions, but it is urgently to solve the problem. This time, the sub-district fully implemented the work deployment and requirements of the city and the district for establishing the mediation mechanism of resumption of work, production and market operation. While accurately interpreting the laws, it strengthened the coordination with various departments. It not only protected the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers in accordance with the laws, but also gave advices for enterprises to eliminate their concerns about compliance, effectively and quickly solved the labor disputes between the construction units and migrant workers.
The multi-department cooperation to guarantee the resumption of work and production
It was learned from the division of people's participation and promotion of rule of law of the district judicial bureau that the establishment and improvement of the mediation mechanism for resumption of work, production and market operation was regarded as an important work for the overall promotion of the epidemic prevention and control and the eco-social development. At the district level, more than 20 departments including the district political and legal committee, the judicial bureau, the human resources and social security bureau, the petition office, the public security bureau, the market supervision bureau, the federation of trade unions, and the consumer rights and interests protection committee jointly set up the working conference and cooperative guarantee mechanism; in each sub-district, the vanguard role of grass-roots mediation was fully mobilized, the relevant departments set up great mediation work teams, and the judicial offices of sub-districts involved in it, strengthened investigation and prevention, cemented professional mediation force, improved the quality and efficiency of mediation, absorbed contradictions at the grass-roots level and solved them as soon as possible. Under the great mediation mechanism, aiming at the contradictions and disputes that affect the vital interests of the people, such as labor disputes and consumer rights protection, we should promote the construction of a government ruled by law through multi-party cooperation, and improve the professionalism, authority and credibility of dispute settlement.