The Urumqi Municipal Construction Commission has exposed 17 construction companies for being in arrears with salaries payments to migrant workers' salaries and required these companies to pay the arrears within a given deadline or to stop the construction of the projects concerned.
According to Ma Yilei, a director of UMCC, the companies listed did not fulfill their management responsibilities in 2008 and were in default of construction payments which led to socially undesirable arrears in the payment of migrant worker's salaries.
Of the 17 companies, Xinjiang Xingyun Real Estate Development Company and Urumqi Ruitai Real Estate Development Company have been asked to rectify the situation within one year and their application for relevant construction formalities will be suspended; eight companies including Zhuhai Jian'an Decoration Company and Shandong Ningjian Construction Group Company, have been excluded from the Urumuqi construction market; six companies including Urumuqi Shenzhou Building and Installaiton Company have been ordered not to contract for any projects within two years; and Xinjiang Pengda Building Company has had its revenues from contracting projects confiscated for operating without the relevant qualification and defaulting on payment of migrant workers' salaries.
Ma said that in 2008 UMCC achieved settlement of 196 cases of arrears in project payments, with payments totaling CNY420 million.
