Chinese Unrest and show their anguish

   Many laborers like Fan Fu and twenty others, working in Zixia Garden Apartment complex in Hebei province, have been not paid their wages for the last year and have been camping in the offices of the sub-contractor, with their personal belongings, demanding payment. They have not returned home even for the new year. 

 

    As per Fan, the developer excuses of not having money. Fan had brought others also from his home town to work on the apartments. And they have no option left now. They had also represented to the local authorities including protesting outside the offices in Qian'an, a city in Hebei.

 

    The payment of arrears to Fan and about 530 other workers is between 20,000 and 50,000 yuan ($3,000-$7,500). The government offered them each 2,000 yuan in cash, if they left for the holidays.($1 = 6.5777 Chinese yuan).

 

    There was no response to Reuters’ enquiry from the developer, Qianan City Xinyuan Real Estate. The Qian'an government declined comment but said it was looking into the issue.

 

    The worst slowdown hit not only the housing sector, but also other industries, affecting blue- and white-collar workers.

 

    Protests had increased in the last quarter of 2015. Data of Geoffrey Crothall of the Hong Kong-based group China Labor Bulletin, indicates, in December and January there were 774 labor strikes across China, and 529 in the previous two months.

 

    The Chinese government is fearful of social unrest over wage arrears. The local official last week visited a printing factory in the western city of Chongqing to ensure that the workers were paid by the owner.

 

    The Chongqing government, to maintain social stability is ensuring the workers paid, in areply to Reuters by fax. They were silent on officials’ visit to factories and the concern of the government about workers’ unrest.

 

    According to the state-run Workers Daily newspaper, Beijing notified the local authorities to "seriously investigate all incidents of wage arrears, so that migrant workers would be paid in a timely manner and in full" to tide over the protests spilling over.

 

    In a largest crackdown on organized labor, seven labor activists were arrested in Guangdong province while the state Xinhua news agency, accused them of running illegal non-governmental organizations that had been "severely disrupting social order".

 

    Before the Lunar New Year holiday, along with construction workers, around thousands of white-collar workers did not get their bonuses, according to the survey of ZhilianZhaopin job recruitment company. 

 

    Factories remained closed and idle in the industrial area, in the southern province of Guangdong city of Dongguan. Those, still open, did not pay bonuses and consider paying after the New Year, Reuters reported.

 

   Permanent jobsare hard to findunder the current scenario.Two brothers who had to quit their temporary jobs hope things to improve in mid-February.