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SCMP Reporter

Zheng Guangwen  had mixed feelings when the  state-of-the-art Capital Airport's terminal three (T3) opened in Beijing at the end of March.
Mr Zheng, 27, had left his home in Sichuan province  five years ago to join the army of migrant construction workers  that have spruced up Beijing for the Olympics with their labour.

He recalled  feeling thrilled when he was  asked last September to help  complete the exterior of T3 - the  gateway that would greet the numerous tourists expected to flood into the mainland for the Games.

He said  he called  16 friends from home to help him with the project. 'I was hoping to contribute my share to the construction of the Olympics,' Mr Zheng said.  But his excitement was short-lived.


Shortly into the job, one of his men fell off scaffolding and broke his leg. The main contractor, Beijing Jingyi Weiye Stainless Steel Decorations, had subcontracted installation of  the scaffolding to an outside firm and denied responsibility for the worker's injury.

No contracts between the workers and the subcontractor were signed and Jingyi Weiye had not taken out workplace insurance - as required by law. Several months later the company finally paid 45,000 yuan (HK$50,270) to the injured worker, after  he sued the firm at the Labour Tribunal. 

But a Mr Chen, who was in charge of the workers, said he had no money left to pay the rest of the workers, who were still owed a total of 30,000 yuan in wages.

The company's boss,  surnamed Zuo, referred enquiries  to  a contractor the company had hired, but whose contact details he didn't have.


Mr Zheng, who is still paying rent for three adjacent rooms in a building on the southern outskirts of the capital,  which used to house up to 10 men he recruited for his team, is now living by himself, getting by on odd jobs and spending most of his time chasing  the money owed to him.

He is liaising with the local legal aid department in the hopes of bringing a claim against  Jingyi Weiye. But Mr Zheng needs  a signed legal aid application form from each of the men he hired, many of whom did not return to Beijing after the Lunar New Year holiday and who have since been  calling him  about their money.


Apart from bringing his friends to Beijing, his wife and their one-year-old baby daughter followed him to the capital in February hoping to find a job so the family could  be together again.

His wife was earning about 1,000 yuan a month at a shoe factory in Hunan province , but could not find any openings  in Beijing matching that salary as there were few factories left in the city and restaurant pay there was low. Mr Zheng said there  seemed to be fewer people coming to Beijing looking for jobs this year, and some of his friends had left the capital as most of the construction projects for the Games had already been completed.  


Beijing retailers, meanwhile, have complained about the difficulties of finding workers this year, which they say are happening because  wages  in the areas where migrants come from have gone up, and tighter security controls targeting migrants  are further hampering their efforts to hire new staff. 

As for Mr Zheng, he said: 'I want to go home, it's too hard to find a job here now. But how can I go home without  [my friends'] money?' Feeling responsible for the men's plight, Mr Zheng  said he had given 10,000 yuan of his savings to the men.


With just three months to go before the Olympics began,  Mr Zheng  said he no longer cared about one of the world's grandest sporting events. 'I should be happy because it is not easy for us to host the Olympics,' he said. 'But how can someone burdened by debts be cheerful?'

The withholding of wages  is something that has affected many of the  mainland's  migrant workers, especially those in the construction industry.


The government has vowed to take action against companies that flout their responsibilities. Mr Zheng  said he  thought Beijing was already better than other mainland cities in this regard, but he still planned to leave the capital to work in Hunan once he received all the money he and his friends were owed. But was not optimistic about the future.

'If this can happen in Beijing, what hope do we have for other cities? It'll make no difference.'




Zheng Guangwen