The amount of arrears of wages is as high as more than 10.15 million yuan, and the number of people who are owed wages is as high as 587 ......Recently, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released a typical case of punishing the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration in accordance with the law, disclosing this case of Chai Moumou's refusal to pay labor remuneration.
In practice, the period of arrears of wages in cases of refusal to pay labor remuneration is generally long, and the defendant's refusal to pay labor remuneration has obvious subjective malice, and the victims whose rights and interests are harmed are often special groups. Based on the above-mentioned characteristics, the procuratorial organs have always maintained a posture of severely punishing the crime of malicious wage arrears in accordance with the law.
In the case of Chai Moumou's refusal to pay labor remuneration, in March 2021, the defendant Chai Moumou signed a real estate project contract with an engineering construction company in Linghai City, Liaoning Province. Linghai Engineering Construction Company paid Chai Moumou's wages in full and on schedule in accordance with the progress of the project, and Chai Moumou evaded supervision by making a false wage table for migrant workers, and continued to use the money that should be paid to migrant workers to pay for other projects and personal expenses contracted by him. As of November 2021, Chai Moumou owed a total of more than 10.15 million yuan in wages to 587 migrant workers.
At the same time, Chai Moumou concealed the fact that Linghai Engineering Construction Company had fully allocated the wages of migrant workers, and falsely claimed that the wages of migrant workers should be paid by Linghai Engineering Construction Company, causing more than 300 migrant workers to petition five times in groups, causing a bad social impact.
In February 2022, the Linghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau issued the "Labor and Social Security Supervision Rectification Instruction within a Time Limit" to Chai Moumou, who evaded payment by turning off his mobile phone, changing his residence, and hiding in other places.
In November 2022, the Linghai Municipal People's Court sentenced the defendant Chai Moumou to 5 years in prison and a fine of 20,000 yuan for the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration. Chai appealed. The Jinzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment.
China's criminal law stipulates two levels of punishment for the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration, the first level is fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or short-term detention, and/or a fine; where serious consequences are caused, the sentence is to be upgraded to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and a concurrent fine. In this case, the amount of malicious wage arrears was particularly huge, the number of people in arrears of wages was large, and the defendant fled and lost contact and concealed the whereabouts of the funds involved in the case, causing the victim group to petition and causing a vile social impact. The procuratorate found that it had "caused serious consequences", and the case was to be punished severely in accordance with the law.
It is reported that from January to November 2023, procuratorial organs across the country accepted, reviewed, and prosecuted 2,554 cases and 3,032 people for the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration, a decrease compared with the same period in 20191%, the rapid growth of wage arrears has been reversed.
The main purpose of criminalizing the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration is not to punish, but to protect and relieve the legitimate rights and interests of workers through the deterrent and preventive effects of criminal punishment. The person in charge of the First Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said that the original intention of the legislation is not to apply crimes frequently, but to better protect the labor rights and interests of workers and promote the formation of an honest and trustworthy market system.
Lu Yue. **Worker**.