The Shanghai Construction and Management Commission plans to set up personal bank accounts for migrant workers starting this October, when it will also push for salaries to remain separate from other construction expenses.

Officials say the plan means construction workers will be paid by a project's main contractor, not one of several subcontractors working on the project. By reducing the number of companies responsible for paying the workers, officials hope to greatly reduce the number of migrants who complain they haven't been paid or that their wages have been delayed for long periods of time.

"The new measure is expected to prevent employers from delaying, or even failing to pay migrant workers on time," said Sun Jianping of the commission.

Currently, there are nearly 1 million migrants working for more than 6,000 construction companies in the city.

That number accounts for about 25 percent of all migrant workers in Shanghai.

Normally, a migrant construction worker earns less than 1,000 yuan (US$120) per month. But some subcontractors will only pay about 30 percent of their wages every month, holding the remaining money until the project is completed or until the end of the year.

Last year, the Shanghai Labor Inspection Team investigated more than 500 cases where wages had been withheld for an extreme period of time, with 50 million yuan (US$6 million) owed to the workers.

Most of the violators were private subcontractors who deliberately delayed or deducted migrants' wages, inspectors said.

(Shanghai Daily August 9, 2004)